Air India is set to begin restoring its flight schedules after a hiatus on some routes prompted by the deadly crash of flight AI171 in Ahmedabad in June 2025, meaning the carrier will soon be able to offer more than 525 international flights per week on 63 routes.
The “safety pause” has allowed the airline to carry out “precautionary checks” on its Boeing 787 fleet and work around longer routes due to issues with the Middle East’s airspace. It will be brought to an end from the start of August, with the gradual resumption of more frequent flights to Air India’s global destinations, including in Europe, the US, and Asia.
Schedules in detail
Flights between Ahmedabad and London Heathrow will operate three times a week. instead of the five services to and from Gatwick that have been in operation. Flights between Delhi and Heathrow have already gone back to 24 times a week.
However, the disruption is set to continue on some services, including between Delhi and Birmingham – a UK airport that tends to serve the large Indian population in Leicester and the Midlands.
In Europe, flights between from Delhi to Zurich, Switzerland are will increase by 25% from 1 August, while Delhi-Amsterdam services will return to seven per week.
Further afield between Delhi and Tokyo, and Delhi and Seoul, Air India will recommence flights by 1 September.
Gatwick’s connections to Amritsar and Goa will not resume until at least 30 September 2025. Likewise, routes between Bengaluru or Pune and Singapore remain suspended and those wanting to fly between Delhi and Copenhagen, or Sydney, Australia, or Chicago and New York, will also have to wait a little longer before schedules return to normal.
Apologies and investigations
Explaining that “the restoration to full operation is being phased”, Air India apologised to passengers whose travel plans are up in the air due to the changed schedules. The carrier is “proactively contacting” affected flyers, it says, offering rebookings on alternative flights, or full refunds.
Air traffic accident investigations are still under way regarding the cause of the Ahmedabad crash in which all but one person on board died when the Dreamliner failed to gain altitude after takeoff, impacting nearby college buildings and killing 21 people on the ground. An initial report, released in accordance with international aviation rules within a month of the incident, reveals that fuel to the engines appears to have been cut off despite neither pilot being aware of having done so.
