Air India opens booking for international flights on June 1, 2020

Earlier this week, the decision to extend the India-wide lockdown till May 3, 2020, was made. Back in March, airlines were told to ground all aircraft in India and close operations temporarily. Then, it was decided that airlines across the country would park all their aircraft by March 24, 2020, 2359 hours, and not operate any flights till March 31, 2359 hours. You can read the full details of the initial grounding here. From there, the nationwide lockdown went into effect till April 14, 2020, and hence all domestic and international operations to India were ceased as well till April 14, 2359 hours.

The question, then, is when will flights resume. Different airlines have a different take on it, but one airline to watch out for is Air India. Air India’s closures have been usually a surrogate for what the government policy is. For instance, Air India shut down flight sale through April 30 before everyone else.

It turns out, Air India, on April 17, 2020, has started accepting bookings for international flights from June 1, 2020, onwards.

 

a screenshot of a flight schedule

On the other hand, flights to the USA are going to start a day or two later.

a screenshot of a flight schedule

For these flights, there seem to be social distancing measures in order as well. So, for a Boeing 777, here is the capacity that can be filled up on a plane as compared to the available capacity. This information is from someone working at Air India, and is subject to change:

  • Boeing 77W:
    • 3 First Class seats (4 available)
    • 20 Business Class seats (35 available)
    • 200 Economy Class seats (303 available)
  • Boeing 787
    •  9 Business Class seats (18 available)
    • 158 Economy Class seats (238 available)

 

Bottomline

Just because Air India has opened bookings for June 1, 2020 does not mean they will be flying that day for sure. This totally depends on how the situation evolves in the next 40 days or so. It also depends on the other country if they are accepting flights and passengers from India into their country at that point in time.

So, if you don’t think if you really need to travel at this moment, don’t book any tickets right now and wait for the traffic to actually start moving before you make any bookings. Especially, since you can see the Minister of Civil Aviation making such announcements on Twitter.


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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. Mera visa 28 june nu khatm hai mai bahrain jana hai menu daso mai kd tk delhi to bahrain di flight suru a

  2. Please inform us when international flight starts from India to Hong Kong. We are stuck here. Need to go urgently. Thank you.

  3. I tried several times to get a booking from Pune, India to SanFrancisco,USA. When booking selection did not open, I tried to chat with Air India agent/ expert, I was given number in queue, when it was my turn,it was flashed with error and I tried it several times.Are there any flights from Pune/ Mumbai to SanFrancisco available after 9the of June. If so how to book it?

  4. Please inform me when international flights start from usa to Mumbai I m here in big trouble now and I want to come back to my country please please please please inform me

  5. Our flight to Lhr.was booked on 16/03/2020 for 01/06/2020
    From Ahmedabad AI 171. Would you be able to send me the update so as to give us enough time to get our selves ready to make the necessary arrangements. Thanks a lot.

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