Air India schedules A350 international debut

Air India has announced it will begin scheduled international A350-900 flights from May 1, connecting Delhi International and Dubai International. The carrier started inducting the A350s earlier this year. Operating a fleet of three active A350s (Air India has one more under maintenance in Delhi at the moment and two still undelivered and stored in Toulouse Blagnac), it has deployed it exclusively on domestic routes, connecting Bengaluru International to Chennai, Delhi International, Hyderabad International, and Mumbai International, Delhi to Mumbai, and Hyderabad to Chennai and Mumbai, according to the ch-aviation schedules module. Air India’s A350s feature 28 business seats, 24 premium economy seats and 264 economy seats. The company has 14 more A350-900s on order (for a final tally of 20), and twenty A350-1000s. No further international routes onboard Air India’s A350 fleet were announced at this point. The Airbus next-gen widebody fleet is part of a massive fleet upgrade underway at Air India. Including the undelivered A350s, the carrier has 446 new jets on order. The expectation was to take, on average, one new aircraft every six days this year, according to CEO Campbell Wilson.<br/>