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Air India Cuts Europe Flights, Adds Sydney and Osaka Services

Delhi flights to Copenhagen, Vienna and Birmingham end this winter as fuel costs and closed Pakistan airspace bite. Sydney rises to 11 flights a week and Osaka starts in February.

By Orbit Post2 min read
Read inENESNEHIFR
Air India Cuts Europe Flights, Adds Sydney and Osaka Services

Key points

  • Air India is cutting back its European network in the winter schedule and putting the capacity into Australia and Japan instead.
  • Schedule filings tracked by AeroRoutes give the cut dates.
  • Vienna does not disappear from the map entirely.

Air India is cutting back its European network in the winter schedule and putting the capacity into Australia and Japan instead. The airline will suspend its nonstop flights from Delhi to Copenhagen and Vienna, and reduce services to Birmingham, London Gatwick and San Francisco, The Hindu BusinessLine reported. Rising jet fuel prices and the continued closure of Pakistan airspace, which forces longer routes, sit behind the changes.

Schedule filings tracked by AeroRoutes give the cut dates. Delhi to Copenhagen, four flights a week, ends on October 25. Delhi to Vienna, four flights a week, ends on November 1, and Delhi to Birmingham, three flights a week, ends on November 4. The Amritsar to London Gatwick service also ends on October 25. Aviation Week, using CAPA timetable data, reported the same Vienna and Birmingham suspensions.

Vienna does not disappear from the map entirely. The city will stay on as a technical stop for select flights to North America, including services linked to Toronto, San Francisco and Vancouver, the filings say. The Vienna withdrawal still ends the only nonstop link between Austria and India.

More seats to Sydney, a new route to Osaka

On the other side of the ledger, Delhi to Sydney rises from seven flights a week to eleven. BusinessLine put the gain at about 170,000 extra seats a year on the Sydney market, with better connections onward to the UK and Europe.

Air India also announced a new Delhi to Osaka service on Thursday. The route will run four times a week starting next February. Osaka becomes the airline's second destination in Japan, after Tokyo Haneda, which Air India serves from Delhi and Mumbai.

Why the network is moving east

An airline executive told BusinessLine the network is under review route by route, with decisions driven by high fuel prices and closed airspace. Pakistan airspace has stayed shut to Indian carriers, which adds flying time and fuel burn on westbound routes from Delhi. Europe flights take the hit first because they are long, competitive and costly to serve on a detour.

For passengers, the practical change is choice. Anyone booked on the suspended European routes for travel after the cut dates should expect a rebooking offer or a refund route from the airline. Anyone flying between India and Australia gets more options, and Japan gets a second gateway.

Sources