Air India announces additional flights to Dubai from Delhi and Mumbai

Dubai: Air India on Wednesday announced more flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Dubai as part of the network alignment process.

Air India has increased the frequency in the current summer schedule to operate up to 10 flights per day between Delhi and Dubai (in both directions), including a new service that begins on April 29, 2023. Air India presently offers up to six daily flights (in both directions) between Mumbai and Dubai. This entails eight flights each day from the two Indian cities to Dubai for the majority of the week.

On the majority of daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Dubai, Air India has also placed its twin-aisle Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft (with 18 fully-flat beds in Business Class and 238 Economy Class seats) in service. The rest are flown by Airbus A320/321 planes.

The airline stated that the new flight schedules to and from Dubai are dispersed throughout the day, giving passengers to choose between morning, afternoon, and nighttime departures.

The airline operated by Tata made the statement one month after the company revealed a significant change to how its core sectors would be served on Dubai-India routes.

On March 22, the airline announced that Air India Express, its low-cost carrier, would primarily fly to Tier-2 cities like Goa, Indore, Kozhikode, and other similar places, while Air India would prioritise expanding operations to Indian metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi while reducing its operations at smaller airports and on routes that overlap.

Meanwhile, during the Eid Al Fitr holidays, airfares between the UAE and India dropped abruptly and unexpectedly as a result of new flights by Air India Express and Go Air that opened up timely capacity on this route. For travel from May 11 to May 18, current Economy class return rates range from Dh695 to Dh1,102, depending on the sector. After June 16, prices skyrocket, reaching a high of Dh1,235–Dh2,612 during the busiest summer travel period.