Air India to Cancel Around 60 Flights to the United States (US)

GURUGRAM- Tata Group-Owned Air India (AI) has canceled around 60 flights to the United States of America (USA) during the peak winter travel period.

The decision was prompted by a shortage of aircraft due to maintenance issues, with many wide-body planes such as the Boeing 777 and 787 being grounded.

Air India Cancels 60 US Flights

Air India has cancelled numerous flights to major US destinations like San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, Newark, and New York between November 15 and December 31. The cancellations are due to delayed return of aircraft from heavy maintenance and supply chain constraints.

The affected routes include:

• 14 flights on the Delhi-Chicago route
• 28 flights on the Delhi-Washington route
• 12 flights on the Delhi-San Francisco route
• 4 flights on the Mumbai-New York route
• 2 flights on the Delhi-Newark route

The airline aims to mitigate last-minute delays that have affected its US-bound flights. Air India acknowledged technical problems have caused significant disruptions, leading to extended wait times for passengers.

To accommodate affected travelers, Air India is offering alternatives, including rebooking on other Air India group flights, complimentary date changes, or full refunds. The cancellations come during the busy holiday season when demand for US travel typically surges.

Air India said it is working to resolve the maintenance issues and minimize disruptions for passengers. The airline emphasized transparency and proactively informed affected customers about flight cancellations.

The carrier told CNBCTV-18 that,

Air India currently operates:

• 5 flights per week between Delhi and Washington
• 7 flights per week between Delhi and JFK (New York)
• 7 flights per week between Mumbai and JFK
• 7 flights per week between Delhi and Chicago

Air India also flies to San Francisco from 3 Indian cities:

• 1 daily flight from Delhi
• 4 flights per week from Mumbai and Bangalore

Additionally, Air India operates 3 flights per week to Newark from Delhi and Mumbai.

Air India earlier announced significant enhancements to its international network for the Winter 2024 season, which runs from October 27, 2024, to March 29, 2025. You can read them here: Air India New International Schedule Update for Winter 2024

Our Take

It will be a service reduction which will be reflected in coming schedule updates by aviation schedule data published by Cirium and others.

According to Planespotters.net data, Air India operates a fleet of 60 Widebody aircraft, yes a coincidence with the number of flights they are canceling to the US. They are as follows:

Further, post-merger with Vistara on November 12, 2024, Air India will have seven additional 787-9 aircraft but they will continue to serve Vistara’s existing European routes.

Out of 60, three 777-300ER and three 787-8 aircraft are currently grounded for maintenance and it looks like more will visit the hangar for scheduled maintenance.

The same issue is faced by Malaysia Airlines as they are forced to cancel flights as they have to ground planes for engine change and regular maintenance.

Also, there are rumors that Air India will launch new US destinations- Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), and Los Angeles (LAX) this winter. However, it looks highly unlikely that they will do this winter, but there is still a lot of time and we should not eliminate this possibly.

Air India group which includes all four carriers will operate 6,209 weekly flights to 100s of destinations in Winter 2024-25.

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