New Delhi: Tata Group-owned India’s only full-service carrier, Air India (AI) is likely to launch new flights from Delhi International Airport (DEL) to London Gatwick (LGW) in summer 2025 though it still is to be confirmed.
According to the Airport slot coordinator, ACL, the Gatwick has been requested for 410 slots for the DEL-LGW flight.
The Gurugram-based carrier already operates India to London Gatwick flights and is looking to strengthen its network with this new route.
The Indian flag carrier currently operates three daily flights between Delhi and London Heathrow (LHR) using its flagship Airbus A350-900 aircraft and Vistara’s 787-9 Dreamliners.
Air India previously operated 787-8 aircraft to serve two daily DEL-LHR flights. It has 1860 slots for the Summer season. In the summer of 2024, Air India deployed 572,760 seats, but with high-capacity aircraft, it will deploy 6,03,000 seats in the summer of 2025.
Air India maintained 1020 slots in the summer of 2024 and deployed 261,120 seats. But for Summer 2025, it requested 240 additional slots but it received 180 of them. With these, it will deploy 307,200 seats. This means 46,000+ seats.
Air India will possibly deploy a Boeing 787-8 fleet to serve this route. Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft has 256 seats including 18 in Business Class and 238 economy seats.
Tata Air India is the largest carrier with a market share of over 30 percent (including Vistara’s market share as well) on Europe-India flights.
Air India is also in talks to start direct flights between Kochi (COK) and Dublin (DUB), Ireland. However, the Summer 2025 Dublin new destinations allocated report does not include this new route. This means they are at a nascent stage and will take time to come into reality.
The airline has also shuffled its European network following the merger with Vistara.
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