Tata’s owned Air India became the first airline in India to induct the A350. The airline started domestic operations with the plane from January 22 this year and followed it up with first international flights starting May 01. The airline has subsequently announced its first long haul international flights with the A350 which become effective September 01, with 14 of 17 weekly flights between Delhi and London Heathrow being taken over by the Airbus A350 which is configured in three classes ( Business, Premium Economy and Economy).
As it turns out, the A350 will be making its presence felt in the United Kingdom before September with the Farnborough Airshow confirming Air India’s A350 on static display. The airshow will be held from July 22 to July 26 at Farnborough, towards the SOuth West of London.
The interesting twist to the whole story is that Air India is listing A350 flights to London Gatwick from Delhi on July 20 (Saturday). The outbound flight from India operates as AI141 departing New Delhi at 1550 hours in the afternoon and scheduled to land at London Gatwick at 2045 hours local time.
The return flight is scheduled on July 24 (Wednesday) departing London Gatwick at 2145 hours and arriving in Delhi at 1100 hours the next day, operating as AI 148.
As is the case with such flights, the fares on this flight are cheaper than those on the other flights of the airline on that day.
Outings at such air shows are a win-win for the airline, especially in this case when the six planes are not being fully utilised. More often than not, the manufacturer (OEM) pays the airline, however the commercial arrangements in this case (like all other) remain off bounds. For the airline it makes global news as Farnborough is one of the major air shows worldwide. The new product, though not the one chosen by Air India in this case, also becomes visible to the world with an hope of covering up for the negative publicity that it has been getting online for the product and state of the legacy Air India wide body aircraft. However, the airliner will be at the airshow, not for the full duration but just 22nd and 23rd of July since it is scheduled to depart as a commercial flight on July 24th.
The ferry flights being open for sale adds to the revenue for the ferry with the general concept being to get some revenue instead of nothing, again a very standard practice if permitted under bilateral rights. The airline already has a presence at London Gatwick with flights from Amritsar, Goa – MOPA, Kochi and Ahmedabad.
If you are planning to book this flight, keep in mind that such one off flights are always subject to change in schedule. However, this gives an opportunity to be the first to fly to the UK on Air India’s A350 before the formal commercial deployment starts.
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Published by Ameya
A management professional with interests in Aviation, Public Transport, Travel & Food
View all posts by Ameya
Published
July 4, 2024