Air India’s new flagship A350 makes ultra long-haul debut with Delhi-New York flights

Most of Air India’s ultra long-haul flights are operated utilizing the Boeing 777 aircraft, a fig of which are successful a rundown authorities and person resulted successful the hose receiving brickbats from flyers.

Air India’s existing wide-body craft fleet comprises a ample fig of older bequest planes that were inducted erstwhile it was nether authorities control.

“The deployment of this flagship product, which besides precocious commenced connected the Delhi-London Heathrow route, marks a important milestone successful the airline’s post-privatization translation program,” Air India said successful a release.

Initially, the A350 volition run regular non-stop flights betwixt Delhi and New York’s John F Kennedy Airport. The Air India A350 Delhi-Newark flights volition beryllium operated 5 times a week from January 2.

“Guest feedback connected the craft and caller lawsuit acquisition has been exceptionally affirmative since it was launched connected the Delhi-London Heathrow way successful September, truthful we are excited to present bring it to New York. We are besides looking guardant to commencing the afloat interior refit of existing craft successful 2025 which, unneurotic with the hundreds of caller craft connected order, volition instrumentality Air India to caller heights,” Air India’s Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director Campbell Wilson said.

Air India has already embarked upon a $400-million interior refit programme for its bequest narrow-body jets. The refit programme for the wide-body fleet is expected to commencement aboriginal adjacent year.

“The A350 flights connection travellers an elevated on-board experience, featuring enhanced repast menus, caller serviceware, caller bedding, and updated amenity kits for Business and Premium Economy guests, exclusively designed by Ferragamo and TUMI, respectively. The seats crossed each cabins connected the A350 travel with the latest-generation Panasonic eX3 IFE strategy and HD screens that connection much than 3,000 hours of amusement contented from astir the satellite successful 13 planetary and 8 Indian determination languages,” Air India said.

The bearer started receiving the long-range A350 aircraft—part of its mammoth bid of 470 Airbus and Boeing planes—in December 2023. Of the 40 A350s ordered by the hose successful 2023, six person already joined its fleet. In a modular three-class configuration, the A350-900 tin transportation 300-350 passengers and has a formation scope of implicit 15,000 km, per information disposable connected the Airbus website. Air India’s A350-900 craft travel successful a three-class compartment configuration with a full of 316 seats—28 successful concern class, 24 successful premium economy, and 264 successful system class.

Air India’s monolithic bid of 470 planes—250 with Airbus and 220 with Boeing—is cardinal not conscionable to the Air India group’s capableness and web enlargement plans, but besides to its ambition of offering a world-class merchandise to flyers. Air India’s Airbus bid consists of a full of 40 A350 planes and 210 planes of the A320neo household of narrow-body aircraft. The six A350s delivered to Air India truthful acold were primitively meant for Russian emblem bearer Aeroflot, but were offered to the Indian bearer owed to the West’s sanctions connected Moscow implicit the warfare successful Ukraine.