Air India publishes schedule for international flights May 18, 2020 onwards

Lockdown 3.0 for India has just come into force, and there seems to be a vast amount of confusion and frustration on how air travel will resume in the times ahead. Every day, via Twitter or the site, I receive requests for people who want to fly back to their families abroad or come back to their homes in India, since the Indian borders are closed since March 25, 2020.

While the Government of India has not allowed any airline to fly until further notice, Air India sometimes tends to get advance notice of things and plans accordingly. They were the first ones to close sales of tickets and zero out availability after all when the lockdown was coming in, even before we sighted the official order in the public domain.

the wing of a plane

Longtime LiveFromALounge reader Balajee Venkata Raman alerted me last night to a new schedule being posted on Air India’s website for flights from May 18 onwards. While I was investigating some of these schedules, turns out RoutesOnline managed to get the full schedule via OAG data published.

a screen shot of a computer

Here is a look at the mind of Air India route planners, and how things might pan out on the international side for Air India, which is perhaps going to start international flights sooner than later and will be maybe the first carrier out of India to eventually open up International flights:

Middle East

  • Ahmedabad – Kuwait City 2 weekly A321
  • Chennai – Dubai 1 daily A321
  • Chennai – Muscat 1 daily A321
  • Delhi – Bahrain 4 weekly A319
  • Delhi – Doha 6 weekly A321
  • Delhi – Dubai 2 daily 787-8
  • Delhi – Muscat 1 daily A321
  • Delhi – Tel Aviv 4 weekly 787-8
  • Goa – Dubai 4 weekly A321
  • Goa – Kuwait City 3 weekly A321
  • Indore – Dubai 3 weekly A321
  • Kolkata – Dubai 4 weekly A321
  • Kozhikode – Dubai 1 daily A321
  • Kozhikode – Sharjah 1 daily A321
  • Mumbai – Abu Dhabi 1 daily A321
  • Mumbai – Doha 3 weekly 787-8
  • Mumbai – Dubai 13 weekly A321/787-8
  • Mumbai – Kuwait City 1 daily A321
  • Mumbai – Muscat 1 daily A321
  • Thiruvananthapuram – Sharjah 1 daily A320

United Kingdom

  • Ahmedabad – London Heathrow 4 weekly 787-8
  • Amritsar – Birmingham 3 weekly 787-8
  • Amritsar – London Stansted 3 weekly 787-8
  • Bangalore – London Heathrow 3 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – Birmingham 3 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – London Heathrow 2 daily 787-8
  • Mumbai – London Heathrow 11 weekly 777-300ER/787-8

The United States / Canada

  • Delhi – Chicago O’Hare 1 daily 777-300ER
  • Delhi – New York JFK 1 daily 777-300ER
  • Delhi – San Francisco 10 weekly 777-200LR
  • Delhi – Washington Dulles 3 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – Toronto 1 daily 777-300ER
  • Mumbai – Newark 1 daily 777-300ER

Europe

  • Delhi – Copenhagen 3 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – Frankfurt 1 daily 787-8
  • Delhi – Madrid 3 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – Milan Malpensa 2 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – Paris CDG 1 daily 787-8
  • Delhi – Rome 2 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – Stockholm Arlanda 3 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – Vienna 3 weekly 787-8
  • Mumbai – Frankfurt 4 weekly 787-8

Australia

  • Delhi – Melbourne 2 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – Sydney 3 weekly 787-8

Asia

  • Delhi – Seoul Incheon 2 weekly 787-8
  • Delhi – Tokyo Narita 2 weekly 787-8

South Asia

  • Bangalore – Male 6 weekly A321
  • Chennai – Colombo 1 daily A321
  • Delhi – Colombo 1 daily A321
  • Delhi – Kabul 4 weekly A320
  • Delhi – Kathmandu 2 daily A320
  • Kolkata – Kathmandu 4 weekly A319
  • Mumbai – Colombo 4 weekly A319
  • Thiruvananthapuram – Male 1 daily A321

South-East Asia

  • Delhi – Bangkok 2 weekly A321
  • Delhi – Singapore 4 weekly 787-8
  • Mumbai – Bangkok 2 weekly A321
  • Mumbai – Singapore 2 weekly A321

Africa

  • Mumbai – Nairobi 3 weekly 787-8

At first look, it looks like the schedule is similar to what the airline was plying before it was shut down for the time being. The routes are similar, and so are the frequencies. However, quite a few frequencies are also found missing. For instance, there are no flights planned to Hong Kong for the moment, or to Osaka.

And while Air India has started to publish a schedule, none of these flights is open for sale at the moment. Additionally, all these flights would go on sale only subject to the borders of both countries being open, and there will be further fine-tuning over a while about when these flights will take to the skies again.

What do you make of the new international schedule of Air India, and which flights are you missing for now? Also, does this mean that flights are going to be airborne again, come May 18, 2020?

(H/T: Balaji VenkataRaman)


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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. When will the flight operates for Copenhagen Denmark . Me and my 3 year old daughter stuck here with dep visa of 6 months validity , and my visa is about to expire on june 7th 2020.

  2. sir very important to bring indians from nigeria as the conditions there are worst than any other country. they have opened lockdown.Indians have to forcibly go to work. Medical facilities are pathetic and even law and order not being followed. Hooligans coming to residential areas scaring people, shooting bullets in air and extracting money. Pls assist indians with flights from Nigeria

  3. My family are due to return from Amritsar on scheduled flight 8 June 2020 to Stansted airport, please can you advice if this flight will still be scheduled or replaced and how do we put our names forward to ensure we will return back home to London.

    • @Kuljit, buy a flight ticket from Delhi to London flights which are being operated till May 14 only. Check airindia.in

  4. What about flights from hkg to Bombay or Delhi…. Or any place …. Stuck in hongkong and loosing my job.

  5. Is there any flight from Tashkent to Delhi my husband is stucked in Tashkent. He was supposed to come on 1st April, 2020

  6. Hi Ajay!

    Could you please let me know when will be the first outbound flights for Stockholm Arlanda? I mean the date. I want to fly from Delhi to Stockholm with my 2 kids.
    Appreciate your quick response!

    Thanks
    Deepti

  7. When will be the flight services starting from lagos to mumbai / chennai, nowhere mentioned about nigerian indians. Please first arrange flight services from nigeria to india to bring indians who are staying in nigeria back to home

  8. We want to flight form australia to india..our many family members are stuck there ..my husband is on student visa He is also stuck there nd for these situation he lost his job ..how can he serviwe ??.
    Pls plss I request to air india pls start your airlines for australia

  9. What about Goa to London when is air India planing to fly from Goa to London are they going to be operative from 18 of may 2020

    • @Shalifa, none of these flights will operate from May 18 if we don’t hear about the restrictions to fly being not removed. A schedule is not equivalent of tickets being made available.

      • I already have a booking with urll and I want to fly to UK since I am on a spouse visa so aren’t there any special flights

        • @Shalifa special flights are one way only at the moment. Though you can contact the powers to be and see if you can get on the outward leg from Mumbai.

              • N what about air India ? Air India won’t be having repatriation flights from Goa ? Because I already had a booking with air India on 8th of april 2020 so I wanted to know if air India would have any repatriation flights from Goa to London so that I can reschedule my ticket

                • @Shalifa any repatriation flights are charter flights so regular scheduled commercial tickets are not going to be valid on them. These flights are to bring Indians from outside India to home, not the other way around.

                  • Okay thankyou but in your schedule yourll have put up the plan for international flights from Mumbai to London Heathrow and what about our booking that is from Goa to Mumbai and Mumbai to London ?

        • Exactly so that’s what I want to know when these will be a flight from Goa to London will i be informed at my earliest so that I can rebook my ticket ?

    • @shafila – you can use the flight currently used for bringing people from London. They are considering people who want to go from India with long term visa as flight would be empty. Check on MEA site it’s available.

  10. 1 ) when will start flight from Newark to Mumbai , my son ticket on 18th may 2020 so please reply. 2) What is the procedure for rescheduling if the flight will be cancelled on 18th may 2020.

  11. Sir what about Riyadh To Hyderabad ?

    You did not mention about India to Ksa or KSA to India flight schedule

    Kindly update us we re waiting to leave from KSA to Hyderabad India with my Family

  12. Dear I am from Afghanistan I booked two tickets with yours company but you didn’t do flights we are very tired about plz

  13. It is good that Evacuation flight s are commencing soon.But what will be done with Air condition system of Aircraft.The great mistake did by taking Pilgrim from Nanded Sahib to Punjab in AC buses,resulted in around 1250 CONVID-19 cases in state.

  14. Rquest to open domestic flight service from Bengaluru to Kolkata from 18th May. There are many people want to go back to their home town. Want to send people to their home town ASAP. Please help.

  15. When the flights will start from Bengaluru to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) as I want to rejoin my wife and kids as early as possible who are alone there. In fact I came to Bengaluru as my father was criticaly ill after heart operation and it was Almighty’s wish he passed away after we tried our best and now iam struck here… Pls let me know

  16. I desperately need to be with my children in New York , my daughter in law is a health working , who is Working for 12 hrs in the ICU treating the covid patients! I need to be there asap to take care f my grandchild who
    Is 1 & half years old , my son is not able to mange alone as the wife doesn’t come home , when hours of work are stretched ! Please consider !

  17. Me Deepak Kumar Sharma 70 years meri wife Smt Kalpana Sharma 65 years dinak 23.11.2029 Bhopal se Newyork spni Beti ke yeha Newjersy aaye the Humara return total 16.052020 hai Airindia airline COVOD KE Karan canceled hone karan hum kya kare Hamri Visa Avdhi 22.05.2020 hai Kripya is Samsya ka nirakarn karne ka kast kare taki home yeha pareshan na hona pade. Dhanywad

  18. I am in New York I am waiting open flight so i am come back in India my ticket in 30th march in writte but air india flight is cancelled

  19. Any flights from Kolkata to JFK, New York? Kindly advise. Originally tickets booked on Air India for 5th May. Please help.

  20. When flight will resume for Benagalur to Seoul. I’m waiting for long time.

  21. Atleast give confirmation when flights gets started so we will be relaxed or again its going to extend again!!

  22. Hello
    My tickets Sharjah to Varanasi on 19 May. Please inform me i am traveling or not

  23. I checked with AI folks and they are saying there is no such internal news and we can book or schedule your booking. What is the reality behind this news?

    • @Ady this is a schedule. A schedule does not imply tickets are open for booking. Had you read the whole thing you would have found it that in the story itself.

  24. Hi,
    Uae did not open resident visa holders to return back to UAE, how come you didn’t mention about it to the passengers?… This is misinformation and gullible, at the last moment you will deny them to fly because they banned… and they will lose money…

    • Nothing is confirm, wait for govt of India guidelines.
      Once they will allow to fly than Air India will start there flights as per guidelines.
      It’s also depends on UK …is it they allowing any foreign carrier to land on there soil gill COVID-19.

  25. Dear Sir,
    As Pandamic Corona virus Started I have return journey on 5 th of April from AHMEDABAD to EWR USA. Now what to do about my existing reservation. I’m willing for your guidance. thanks and regards.

    • What a relief for stranded people who want to fly domestic and abroad and unite with their families hope it does not get further delayed We will follow all protocols screenings etc for a safe travel please don’t postpone

  26. Hi
    Can you please start flight Mumbai to Melbourne Australia. We have 300 people wanting to go

  27. How authentic is this, as Air India’s website still doesn’t show any availability?

    Regards

    Manpreet

      • If its a schedule, then on Air India’s website why it shows all flights as unavailable. Sorry for my ignorance, not being from travel line.

  28. But is it true flights will start on 18th may from Mumbai to Dubai. When can the tickets be booked.

  29. What sbount inbound flights Sir I am at London my tickets booked by emirates got cancelled due to Covid 19.Notify me for the lfurther updates reg this

  30. Where is flight for dubai to hyderabad please do something we are stuck our tears become stones please help us to come back show humanity

  31. We are stuck at Port Blair since 14 March our return was on 4th April unable to move due to lockdown ,we are to return home town Siliguri . please let me know when flight service will resume.

  32. From Bangalore looking for Hongkong…
    As Hong Kong has zero cases of covid. so many Indian stucked all over India
    if any flights start to Hongkong it will be a great helpful from south zone like Bangalore, Chennai too ..。

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