It is a week since the tragic crash of a Boeing 787 aircraft in Ahmedabad operated by Air India. While the “why” it happened will come out sooner than later, the Indian DGCA has ordered Air India to carry out precautionary inspection on the rest of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet. India and Japan are the only two countries which have ordered a fleet inspection, so far.

The inspection has had its consequences, with Air India seeing a lot of flight cancellations for flights operated with the 787 aircraft, which have happened because each of these inspections take time, and then there are geopolitical issues which are causing longer flight times when flying West from India and so on.

In the aftermath of this move, Air India announced yesterday that it will make planned curtailment to its widebody schedule in the coming weeks.

Air India will cut 15% of wide body international flights for 4 weeks

In a late night statement issued on June 18, 2025, Air India revealed that it will undergo planned cancellation for 15% of its widebody, international flights over the coming weeks. The scheduled cancellations has been now notified.

Air India has mentioned that the mandated inspection on 26 of the 33 Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft has been completed, and it is reassuring that they have been cleared, as it gives them comfort in terms of the “safety measures and procedures” that the airline follows. I believe the remaining checks will take a while, because at least 4 aircraft are in the shop for heavy checks, so any such inspection will only happen before they return to service.

Air India has determined that it will also voluntarily make an inspection of its Boeing 777 fleet, even though that has not been asked of it by the DGCA or any other authority.

These reductions will be effective from 21 June 2025, and last until at least 15 July 2025. Detail of the flights affected are as follows.

1. Routes suspended until July 15, 2025:
   • Delhi-Nairobi (AI961/962) – 4x weekly flights (Suspended until June 30, 2025)
   • Amritsar-London (Gatwick) (AI169/170) – 3x weekly flights
   • Goa (Mopa)-London (Gatwick) (AI145/146) – 3x weekly flights
2. Routes with reduced frequency until July 15, 2025:
   • North America
     1. Delhi-Toronto: Reduced from 13x weekly to 7x weekly
     2. Delhi-Vancouver: Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly
     3. Delhi-San Francisco: Reduced from 10x weekly to 7x weekly
     4. Delhi-Chicago: Reduced from 7x weekly to 3x weekly
     5. Delhi-Washington (Dulles): Reduced from 5x weekly to 3x weekly
   • Europe
     1. Delhi-London (Heathrow): Reduced from 24x weekly to 22x weekly
     2. Bengaluru-London (Heathrow): Reduced from 7x weekly to 6x weekly
     3. Amritsar-Birmingham and Delhi-Birmingham: Reduced from 3x weekly to 2x weekly
     4. Delhi-Paris: Reduced from 14x weekly to 12x weekly
     5. Delhi-Milan: Reduced from 7x weekly to 4x weekly
     6. Delhi-Copenhagen: Reduced from 5x weekly to 3x weekly
     7. Delhi-Vienna: Reduced from 4x weekly to 3x weekly
     8. Delhi-Amsterdam: Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly
   • Australia
     1. Delhi – Melbourne and Delhi – Sydney: Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly
   • Far-East
     1. Delhi-Tokyo (Haneda): Reduced from 7x weekly to 6x weekly
     2. Delhi-Seoul (Incheon): Reduced from 5x weekly to 4x weekly (To operate 3x weekly from June 21 to July 5, and 4x weekly from July 6-15)

This is an expensive but important move

Much of Air India’s 787 and 777 fleet is dedicated to flying around the US and Europe, apart from Australia and long-haul stations in Asia. With European summers setting in, this is the time when customers of the airline use the carrier for vacations or VFR travel. So, by cancelling their flights, Air India is not just losing revenue. If Air India will rebook these passengers on other carriers (something not clear from their statement, and something I’ve reached out to Air India for), the airline will incur additional cost as well.

But eventually, reliability is a large part of operating an airline, and this is a move in the right direction for the airline. Also the move to voluntarily inspect the 777 aircraft will also build confidence that some people might need to board their aircraft.

Bottomline

Air India will cancel approximately 15% of its international, wide body flights, over the coming weeks, to bring back the schedule on track, and build in a buffer.

The airline claims that at the moment, there are various reasons causing delays in operating flights, which include the need to inspect wide body aircraft and the current conflict in the Middle East, and the night curfews which are implemented in various European airports.

What do you think of Air India curtailing widebody capacity?

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