Air India partially restores international flights after ‘safety pause’

Gurugram (Haryana): Air India has announced a phased resumption of its international operations following a “Safety Pause” implemented after the tragic crash of flight AI171 on June 12.

The airline had suspended or reduced multiple routes to conduct precautionary inspections on its Boeing 787 aircraft and to adapt to longer flight paths necessitated by regional airspace closures.

The airline on Tuesday said that partial services would be restored starting August 1, with full normal operations expected to resume by October 1. A total of 5 routes will see reinstated services or increased frequencies.

Key changes include Delhi-London (Heathrow) – Full 24 weekly flights restored starting July 16, Delhi-Zurich – Increased from 4 to 5 flights per week from August 1, Delhi-Tokyo (Haneda) and Delhi-Seoul (Incheon) – Full weekly frequencies to be reinstated by August and September, respectively and Delhi-Amsterdam – To return to 7 flights per week from August 1.

A new route between Ahmedabad and London (Heathrow) will operate three times weekly, replacing the current five-times-weekly Gatwick service. Additionally, Delhi-Nairobi services will operate three times a week until August 31, to be suspended from 1-30 September.

Despite the partial restoration, over 15 routes will continue to operate at reduced frequencies until at least the end of September. These include:

The flights between Bengaluru-London (Heathrow) remains reduced from 7x weekly to 6x weekly; will further reduce to 4x weekly, effective August 1. The Delhi-Paris flight will cut to 7x weekly from 12x, starting August 1.

The Delhi-Milan flight will be reduced from 4x weekly to 3x weekly, effective 16 July while the Delhi-Copenhagen remains reduced from 5x weekly to 3x weekly.

The Delhi-Vienna flight remains reduced from 4x weekly to 3x weekly and Amritsar-Birmingham remains reduced from 3x weekly to 2x weekly until 31 August; to operate 3x weekly, effective September 1.

The flight between Delhi-Birmingham remains reduced from 3x weekly to 2x weekly.

North American destinations such as Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, New York (JFK and Newark) remain reduced, with frequencies ranging from 3 to 7 flights per week.

The flights between Delhi-Melbourne and Delhi-Sydney continue at 5x weekly.

The four international routes remain suspended until September 30, which includes flights between Amritsar-London (Gatwick), Goa (Mopa)-London (Gatwick), Bengaluru-Singapore and Pune-Singapore.

Air India stated that it is proactively contacting affected passengers to offer rebooking options or full refunds.

‘As the schedule reductions taken as part of the Safety Pause had been implemented until 31 July 2025 and the restoration to full operation is being phased, some services initially planned to operate between 1 August and 30 September 2025 will be removed from the schedule. Air India is proactively contacting affected passengers to offer re-booking on alternative flights or a full refund, as per their preference. Air India apologizes for the inconvenience’, the airline said in a statement.

Despite the temporary cuts, Air India will operate more than 525 international flights per week across 63 destinations during the phased restoration period.