Air India Cancels Hundreds Of International Flights To Ensure Stability

It has been a really rough several days for Air India. Last week, we saw the crash of an Air India Boeing 787, in an accident that can only be described as tragic, horrific, and mysterious. With the cause of the accident still not known, regulators have ordered Air India to carry out inspections on its Dreamliner fleet.

In the aftermath of all of this, Air India has announced plans to significantly scale back its schedule in the coming weeks.

Air India cuts 15% of wide body international flights

Air India has revealed plans to cancel roughly 15% of its wide body, international flights, over the coming weeks. These schedule updates will be implemented between June 18 and June 20, 2025, for travel through mid-July 2025.

Air India calls this a “temporary route curtailment,” and describes it as follows:

Due to the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, night curfew in the airspaces of many countries in Europe and East Asia, the ongoing enhanced safety inspections, and also the necessary cautious approach being taken by the engineering staff and Air India pilots, there have been certain disruptions in our international operations over the last 6 days leading to a total of 83 cancellations.

Given the compounding circumstances that Air India is facing, to ensure stability of our operations, better efficiency and to minimise inconvenience to passengers, Air India has decided to reduce its international services on widebody aircraft by 15% for the next few weeks. The cuts will be implemented between now and 20 June and will continue thereafter until at least mid-July. This effectively adds to our reserve aircraft availability to take care of any unplanned disruptions.

As you can see, the airline claims this isn’t just about maintenance and having spare aircraft, but it’s also about tensions in the Middle East, challenges with night curfews, and more.

The airline includes a message about rebounding back, with the support of customers:

The curtailments are a painful measure to take, but are necessary following a devasting event which we are still working through and an unusual combination of external events. It is done to restore operational stability, and to minimise last-minute inconvenience to passengers. With the continued support of our passengers, the regulatory authorities, Ministry of Civil Aviation and India at large, we will come out stronger through this tragic incident and reestablish the confidence of our passengers and all stakeholders in our services, at the earliest.

Air India provides wide body aircraft inspection update

As part of the same announcement, Air India has provided an update on its Boeing 787 inspection program, also stating that it’s voluntarily inspecting its Boeing 777s:

The DGCA had mandated ‘Enhanced Safety Inspection’ across Air India’s Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft fleet. Out of total 33 aircraft, inspections have now been completed on 26 and these have been cleared for service, while inspection of the remainder will be complete in the coming days. The fact that 26 aircraft have been cleared gives reassurance in the safety measures and procedures that we follow. As a matter of added precaution, Air India will also undertake enhanced safety checks on its Boeing 777 fleet and, going forward, we will continue to cooperate with the authorities, viz AAIB, DGCA, MoCA to ensure the safety of our passengers, our crew and our aircraft, which remains our highest priority.

Bottom line

Air India is canceling roughly 15% of its international, wide body flights, over the coming weeks, in the aftermath of the awful accident we saw last week.

The airline claims to be making these cuts for a variety of reasons, including the need to inspect wide body aircraft, in order to ensure schedule integrity, and also in light of the conflict in the Middle East, which are making many flights longer.

What do you make of Air India reducing capacity?