Air India is moving four UK routes from London Heathrow (LHR) to London Gatwick (LGW) at the beginning of the summer 2023 season.
The airline plans to offer flights from Ahmedabad (AMD), Amritsar (ATQ), Goa (GOI) and Kochi (COK) starting from March 26. Each route will receive three flights per week using Boeing 787-8 aircraft.
Following the switch to Gatwick, the Star Alliance member intends to increase frequencies of Heathrow-Delhi (DEL) from 14X-weekly to 17X-weekly and Heathrow-Mumbai (BOM) from 13X-weekly to 14X-weekly.
However, the existing 3X-weekly flight to Heathrow from Hyderabad (HYD) is not currently scheduled to operate beyond the end of March.
Gatwick CEO Stewart Wingate welcomed Air India’s arrival: “India not only offers wonderful cities and beach destinations to explore but provides a wealth of opportunities for businesses and wider connectivity. These connections are also hugely important to our local and regional communities, with people looking to visit family and friends across India.”
OAG Schedules Analyser data shows that Air India is the sole provider of nonstop service to London from Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Kochi at the present time. TUI Airways has a weekly flight to Goa from Gatwick that is scheduled to run until mid-March.
Low-cost startup Flypop intends to fly from London Stansted (STN) to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Goa and Kochi once it begins commercial operations, as well as Chandigarh (IXC), Kolkata (CCU) and Hyderabad.
Air India is currently offering about 25,300 nonstop weekly seats between India and the UK, up by around 18% on pre-pandemic levels. In total, capacity in the UK-India market is 75,300 two-way seats during the week commencing Jan. 9, compared with 55,000 at this time three years ago before the pandemic.
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