Air India will land at London-Gatwick airport with twelve weekly flights from four Indian cities. It will also strengthen its presence at Heathrow with five extra weekly flights.
From March 26, the airline will operate three flights a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Ahmedabad (AMD), located in western India and the largest city in the state of Gujarat; on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays it will fly from Goa (GOI), a west coast city renowned for its beaches and Portuguese heritage; on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Amritsar (ATQ), the second largest city in the northwestern state of Punjab; and on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from Kochi (COK), the financial, commercial and industrial capital of the southwestern coastal state of Kerala. In all cases the return flight is the following day.
All four routes will be operated on Boeing 787-8 aircraft seating 256 passengers.
«The arrival of Air India and its four routes to London Gatwick is fantastic news for the airport and passengers across London and the south-east,» said Stewart Wingate, CEO of Gatwick Airport, part of the VINCI Airports network.
«India not only offers wonderful cities and beach destinations to explore but provides a wealth of opportunities for businesses and wider connectivity. These connections are also hugely important to our local and regional communities, with people looking to visit family and friends across India,» he added.
Heathrow
At the UK’s main airport Air India will add three more weekly flights from Delhi, from 14 to 17; from Mumbai it will increase to 14 flights per week. The flights will also be carried out on Boeing 787-8 aircraft.
This expansion in London, the company said, is part of its objective to «spread its wings on the international aviation map», one of the pillars of its five-year transformational roadmap called Vihaan.AI, which seeks to strongly develop its network and fleet, and at the same time develop a new proposition to passengers.
The Indian government completed the privatization of Air India in January 2022, becoming part of Tata, one of the country’s largest economic groups.
See also: New giant in Asia: Air India and Vistara to be merged
