Air India resumes some routes from Aug 1; replaces Ahmedabad-Gatwick with Heathrow flights

Air India on Tuesday said it will operate flight services between Ahmedabad and London Heathrow from August 1, replacing the existing Ahmedabad-Gatwick route.

The airline said it will partially restore services on domestic and international routes that were suspended under a “Safety Pause” last month following the fatal crash of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft.

The pause enabled Air India to perform additional precautionary checks on its Boeing 787 fleet and accommodate longer flying times due to airspace closures over Pakistan and the Middle East, it added.

The partial resumption will see restoration of some frequencies from August 1, with full restoration of schedules planned from October 1.

Under the revised schedule, Air India will operate thrice-weekly flights between Ahmedabad and London Heathrow from August 1 to September 30, replacing the current five-times weekly service between Ahmedabad and London Gatwick.

The airline said two weekly flights on the Delhi-London (Heathrow) route that were curtailed earlier have been restored, with all 24 weekly flights operational from July 16.

Flights on the Delhi-Zurich route will increase from four to five times weekly from August 1, while services to Tokyo (Haneda) will operate all seven times weekly from August 1 following reinstatement of two curtailed frequencies.

Services to Seoul (Incheon) will be fully reinstated from September 1, operating five times a week.

However, several routes will continue with reduced frequencies until September 30. These include:

• Bengaluru-London (Heathrow), reduced to four weekly flights from August 1

• Delhi-Paris, reduced from 12 to seven weekly flights from August 1

• Delhi-Milan, reduced to three weekly flights from July 16

• Delhi-New York (JFK), reduced to six weekly flights from July 16, with Mumbai-JFK also reduced to six weekly flights from August 1

• Flights to North America, including Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver, will continue operating at reduced frequencies through August.

Meanwhile, Air India has temporarily suspended routes such as Amritsar-London (Gatwick), Goa (Mopa)-London (Gatwick), Bengaluru-Singapore, and Pune-Singapore until September 30.

The airline said it is proactively contacting affected passengers for rebooking or refunds and apologised for the inconvenience.

With the partial restoration, Air India will operate over 525 international flights per week across 63 short, long, and ultra-long-haul routes.

On June 12, Air India’s London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 on the ground, in what was the deadliest aviation accident globally in a decade.