Air India adds lounges for domestic customers; commits to renovation of Delhi and New York JFK Lounge

Air India today announced that it has expanded and enhanced its network of lounges across airports in India and at all overseas destinations to enhance the travel experience for the airline’s premium customers.

Air India’s lounge services are available to guests flying First or Business Class, and to eligible members of Air India’s frequent flyer programme, Flying Returns, and to those of other Star Alliance member airlines.

Air India adds ten lounges and 11 food courts in India.

Since embarking on its transformation plan, Air India has increased the coverage of lounge access from 16 to 26 airports in India, having entered partnerships with airport lounges at Dibrugarh, Indore, Jammu, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Nagpur, Patna, Srinagar, and Vadodara.

Additionally, at 11 airports where no lounges are available, Air India has partnered with food courts. In total, Air India’s premium guests are now able to access services at lounges or food courts at 37 airports across India.

Air India hits 100% lounge access coverage across all 41 international destinations.

Outside of the country, Air India has enhanced its lounge offering by partnering with the best available lounges at multiple airports, achieving 100% lounge access coverage for premium customers at all 41 destinations in its international route network.

The carrier has now expanded its lounge network to Chicago (Swissport Lounge), New York-Newark Liberty (SAS Lounge), and Tokyo Narita (Japan Airlines’ Sakura Lounge). At Bangkok and Dhaka airports, it has moved to the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge and Balaka Executive Lounge, respectively.

Air India to commence modernisation of own lounges.

Air India has its own signature lounges at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (Terminal 3) and New York (John F. Kennedy International Airport). At JFK, the lounge seems to be in not-so-great shape.

a group of cut out cartoon characters in front of a building

Air India’s Chief Customer Experience & Ground Handling Officer, Rajesh Dogra, has mentioned that the airline will “enhance our signature lounge experience at Delhi and New York Airports wherein major modernisation work will be commencing soon.” No timeline for the overhaul was provided in the press release.

Bottomline

Air India has now lined up lounges and food courts at 37 airports across India for their premium cabin travellers and eligible elite members. Internationally, they have made provisions for lounge access at all the 41 locations the airline flies to so far. In my book, this is a big win, because this was a big patch missing in the airline’s services earlier and is now taken care of.

What do you think of the lounge access enhancements from Air India?


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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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