Summary
- Amsterdam will continue to be served four weekly until October 27th
- It is not yet known if Air India will return next summer, but it is reportedly keen
- The carrier will operate 13 Europe routes this winter, all by the Boeing 787-8
Air India relaunched Delhi to Amsterdam in June 2023, having last served this route 26 years ago. Despite only operating for four months, it will end on October 27th. This is not due to poor route performance but instead from Air India’s inability to secure winter slots at Amsterdam, Europe’s third-busiest airport by September flights and a hotbed of problems from slashing slots.
With such enormous uncertainty from the start, it raises the question of why it was launched in the first place, especially as there are large unserved markets (e.g., Manchester) without this problem and considerable demand. Intriguingly, JetBlue – whose Amsterdam debut was in late August – has secured winter slots for two daily flights.
Air India to Amsterdam
On June 11th, Air India took off from its Delhi hub bound for the Netherlands, the only Indian carrier to serve Amsterdam after Jet Airways pulled out in 2019. In a strange and counterproductive move, Air India announced the route barely one month before it was started, undoubtedly influenced by Amsterdam’s difficult slot situation.
Photo: via Amsterdam Airport.
It will continue to operate four weekly using the 256-seat Boeing 787-8 until October 27, less than five weeks from now. Of course, KLM will continue to run daily. Air India’s service is scheduled as follows, with all times local.
- Delhi to Amsterdam: AI155, 13:10-18:35 (8h 55m block)
- Amsterdam to Delhi: AI156, 20:45-07:55+1 (7h 40m)
Photo: via Amsterdam Airport.
Where will Air India serve this winter?
The end of Amsterdam – for this winter at least – necessitates a look at where it will serve in Europe this winter. Like other carriers in the Northern Hemisphere, it will switch to winter schedules on October 29th, two days after Amsterdam ends.
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With a typical 73 weekly departures (double for both ways), it plans 13 routes involving six Indian airports and eight in Europe, as summarized below. While Air India presently uses the 777-300ER on some of its Delhi to London Heathrow flights, it reverts to all-787-8 this winter.
|
Winter flights |
Route(s) |
Aircraft |
|---|---|---|
|
17 weekly |
Delhi-London Heathrow |
787-8 |
|
Double daily |
Mumbai-London Heathrow |
787-8 |
|
Daily |
Delhi-Frankfurt, Delhi-Paris CDG |
787-8 |
|
Four weekly |
Delhi-Milan Malpensa |
787-8 |
|
Three weekly |
Ahmedabad-London Gatwick, Amritsar-Birmingham, Amritsar-London Gatwick, Delhi-Birmingham, Delhi-Copenhagen, Delhi-Vienna, Goa-London Gatwick, Kochi-London Gatwick |
787-8 |
Air India to Amsterdam: July 2023
Examining booking data for July, the first whole month of the Star Alliance member’s Delhi-Amsterdam service, suggests that it carried approximately 8,000 roundtrip passengers. With 9,216 seats for sale, it achieved a seat load factor of 87%. This is, of course, just one part of the performance puzzle.
Photo: Nicolas Economou | Shutterstock.
Around 46% of passengers transited to places over Delhi, with Bangkok, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Singapore being the five most popular markets.
About 41% were point-to-point: they only flew between Amsterdam and Delhi. (Not surprisingly, Air India captured more of the P2P market than KLM.) The remaining 13% of passengers connected over Amsterdam or had transfer flights from Delhi and Amsterdam.
What do you make of it all? Let us know in the comments.
Sources of information: Cirium, Google Flights, booking data.