Air India has increased Delhi to London Heathrow flights to 17x weekly. It is its second-highest frequency on the route to date, surpassed only by a 21x weekly (3x daily) service in 2015 and 2016, according to OAG data. It'll be the highest for seven years and appears to use slots leased from Garuda Indonesia. Given Air India's transformation plan, new ownership, new CEO, more aircraft, greater emphasis on Delhi as a hub, and planned merger with Vistara (which serves Delhi-Heathrow), expect to see more flights on the route.

Air India grows Delhi-Heathrow

Air India will increase Delhi-Heathrow flights from the current 14x weekly (2x daily) to 17x weekly from the end of March. The additional services are highlighted below in bold. Air India will now have a mid-afternoon departure to and a late evening departure from London. Going to India, it'll now have morning, afternoon, and evening covered. It is scheduled as follows, with all times local:

• Delhi to Heathrow: AI161, 02:35-07:30; 1x daily
• Delhi to Heathrow: AI111, 06:35-11:30; 1x daily
• Delhi to Heathrow: AI165, 15:05-20:00; Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays
• Heathrow to Delhi: AI162, 09:45-22:55; 1x daily
• Heathrow to Delhi: AI112, 13:15-02:25 (+1); 1x daily
• Heathrow to Delhi: AI166, 21:45-10:55 (+1); Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays

Click here for Delhi-Heathrow flights.

All flights will use the 256-seat 787-8, of which Air India has 27. Each has 256 seats and the same configuration: 18 seats in business and 238 in economy. However, they're set to be refurbished and retrofitted with premium economy. As of now, the 787 is Air India's second-largest widebody by capacity, with more seats than the 777-200LR but fewer than the 777-300ER.

Only Delhi and Mumbai will be served

The development comes soon after Air India increased Mumbai-Heathrow to 2x daily, a record high. However, as of January 9th, Air India has no Heathrow flights scheduled or bookable this summer from Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Goa, Hyderabad, or Kochi. Only Delhi and Mumbai will be served.

Click here for Ahmedabad-Heathrow flights.

It raises the question of whether any of those secondary routes will fly from another London airport. After all, Air India briefly flew to London Stansted in October 2019 (as shown below), just before the pandemic struck, as a way of expanding its London presence. Or will Air India be able to acquire more Heathrow slots? More fundamentally, what is the role of non-core India routes in a 'new,' more competitive, and seemingly more hub-driven Air India?

Click here for Mumbai-Heathrow flights.

Up to 8x daily Heathrow-Delhi flights

In 2019, the last normal year, Heathrow-Delhi had 663,000 roundtrip point-to-point passengers, according to booking data. This coming summer, between March 26th and October 28th, there are expected to be 1,608 non-stop departing flights between Heathrow and Delhi across Air India, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Vistara. Put another way, there will be up to 8x daily Delhi-Heathrow flights, the highest ever. On May 2nd, for example, these are due to operate from Heathrow to Delhi:

1. 09:45: AI162, 787-8
2. 10:15: BA143, 777-200ER
3. 12:10: VS302, 787-9
4. 13:15: AI112, 787-8
5. 19:00: BA257, 777-200ER
6. 19:40: VS300, 787-9
7. 21:45: AI166, 787-8
8. 22:05: UK18, 787-9