Air India's A350 Initial Domestic Routes

DALLAS — Air India (AI) has announced that it will use its new Airbus A350-900 on key domestic routes on the subcontinent, starting January 22, 2024. These will be on high-demand routes between major cities throughout the country.

The Tata Group-owned airline's first Airbus A350 will be based in Bengaluru for this initial period, operating a route that connects Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Chennai. This route will operate under flight number AI589, while another flight, AI587, will operate between Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad. These will be operated every day of the week except for Tuesdays, when the aircraft joins Bengaluru for India's capital, New Delhi.

India's flag carrier revealed on social media that bookings are open for the first A350 flights, with its maiden journey in service taking place on January 22. These flights will primarily be operated to train crew before they can move onto AI's long-haul network.

https://twitter.com/airindia/status/1741777885017371067?s=20

Key Domestic Routes

Air India's Airbus A350-900 should come in a three-class configuration containing 316 seats. This includes 28 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 264 new economy class seats.

The airline's A350-900 was delivered in late December from the Airbus delivery center in Toulouse. Airbus' newest long-haul aircraft isn't the only one to enter the AI fleet; the country's flag carrier ordered a total of 470 aircraft in February 2023.

The legacy carrier revised its order with Airbus last month to include short-haul aircraft with a higher capacity.

Featured image: Air India A350-900 crew at DEL. Photo: Air India