The Tata Group-promoted Air India plans to add five more major international destinations to its network in 2025, contingent on aircraft availability, sources told businessline.

In the pipeline are destinations such as Manila, Jakarta, Dallas, and Los Angeles, which are planned to be added to the list of around 45 international destinations in Air India’s international network. 

Air India did not respond to queries sent.

Sources told businessline: “Though supply-side issues will linger on for some more time to come, however, by and large, 2025 is expected to remain muted. This has given us hope to receive new aircraft and to deploy them on new overseas routes.”

Besides, capacity addition as a result of the Vistara merger, as well as rationalisation of the network, has given the airline some bandwidth to consider such a move at a time when aircraft deliveries have been impacted due to supply-side issues.

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In November, Air India Group’s Managing Director & CEO Campbell Wilson had said that the recent strike at Boeing’s manufacturing facilities in the US and supply chain constraints have slowed down network expansion plans.

“We just have to adjust our plans with respect to 2025,” he said.

Notably, the flight schedule to Manila and Jakarta has not yet been declared; however, these are expected to start in the first half of 2025. On the other hand, services to destinations such as Dallas and Los Angeles might start later during the next year.

Apart from these destinations, additional flight frequencies to Europe are also on the cards.

Air India recently commenced flights on new routes such as Mumbai-New York, Mumbai-Melbourne, Delhi-Amsterdam, Delhi-Zurich, and Bengaluru-London. In 2024, Air India added five new destinations outside India to its network: Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Zurich, Bali, and Mauritius. 

Furthermore, sources said that rising international passenger traffic to and from India is giving impetus to the airline’s focus on international route expansion.

Additionally, the success of Air India’s international-to-international transfer or transit traffic business is another motivation to add direct connectivity.

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As per sources, since 2022, when the Tatas took over Air India’s management, the airline has grown its I-to-I business by almost 100 per cent.

Since January 2023, Air India has added new flights from Delhi to Birmingham, Milan, Copenhagen, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Zurich in Europe, which are complemented by new flights to Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City, and, most recently, Kuala Lumpur, along with frequency increases to Kathmandu, Colombo, Singapore, and Bangkok.

In addition, the airline has planned to optimise its network from February 1, 2025, thereby helping travellers from London, Paris, and Frankfurt to easily take one-stop connections to Sydney and Melbourne in Australia and to points like Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Ho Chi Minh City in South-east Asia via New Delhi.