Air India has expanded its international capacity by adding 20 flights every week to destinations in Birmingham, London, and San Francisco in the US and UK. The flights will be introduced in a phased manner from October 2022 to December 2022. These will include five additional flights a week to Birmingham, nine additional flights to London, and six additional flights to San Francisco.
The airline will connect Mumbai with San Francisco with a thrice-weekly service from 2 December, and reinstate a three-times-weekly flight from Bengaluru for San Francisco with effect from 15 December 2022.
“It is a clear signal of our intent, and an early step towards a much bigger aspiration,” Campbell Wilson, CEO & MD, Air India said.
The airline will also increase connectivity to Birmingham from Amritsar with two additional flights and the Delhi-Birmingham route will also be connected by three additional flights per week.
London will receive nine additional weekly flights, of which, five from Mumbai, three from Delhi, and one from Ahmedabad.
This will take Air India’s current schedule of 34 flights every week to the UK to 48 flights. Flights from India to the US will increase from 34 flights to 40 flights per week.
Meanwhile, as per the sources, Air India is considering raising $1bn in a funding round and is in talks with potential investors including private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds. The process is expected to be completed in the next few months taking the total value of the carrier to $5bn. This fundraising comes at a time when the carrier is planning to place a huge order of over 300 jets for operational revamp.