Air India boosts services to East Asian destinations

Air India is prepared to increase its frequency to East Asian destinations later this month after restarting a number of new international routes to the west. The airline is rapidly growing its international network as it attempts to win a sizable portion of India’s aviation sector over the next five years.

In order to provide passengers with additional options for flights to and from Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Seoul, Air India has announced an increase in frequency on well-travelled eastward routes in its summer 2023 timetable.

The airline will launch a total of eight new weekly flights beginning on March 26: six to Bangkok (three from Delhi, three from Mumbai), plus extra flights from Delhi to Seoul and Hong Kong. Air India’s Chief Commercial and Transformation Officer Nipun Aggarwal said,

“Building a more robust network is a key element of Air India’s Vihaan.AI 5-year transformation plan, and having boosted services on multiple routes to North America and Europe in quick succession, we are now pleased to step up services to the East. We recognise the importance of providing our customers with convenient and reliable travel options, and this increase in frequency demonstrates our commitment to meeting those needs.”

With the addition of these new flights, Air India now operates 67 weekly services from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Trichy, and Madurai to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo together with its low-cost international subsidiary Air India Express.

In an effort to resume popular flights, Air India has lately reopened a number of overseas routes. On March 1st, the airline resumed service between Delhi and Copenhagen after nearly three years. This was a component of its broader expansion into Europe, which also saw the return of Milan and Vienna to its network in February. During COVID, all of these flights were cancelled.

Along with the eagerly anticipated Mumbai-New York JFK trip last month, the airline also started flying between Mumbai and San Francisco and Bengaluru and San Francisco last year. Air India stated in November of last year that from March 26 to October 28 of this year, it will operate a single daily flight on the Delhi-Vancouver route.

Rapid network growth is a goal of Air India’s for increasing market share in India. The CEO of Air India, Campbell Wilson, stated in October 2022 that he wants AI to gain a 30% market share in both domestic and foreign markets within the next five years.

Even while the airline still outperforms other Indian carriers in the worldwide market, it faces fierce competition from other international carriers, especially the large ME3 airlines, in terms of network.