Air India flights: International routes restored as airline completes fuel switch check
July 16, 2025
Air India will begin the phased restoration of its international flight schedules from 1 August 2025.
From 1 October, the airline expects to fully restore its flight schedule.
This follows a self-imposed ‘Safety Pause,’ implemented in the wake of the tragic crash of Flight AI171in June.
The Boeing 787 crash, which occurred on 12 June shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad en route to London Gatwick, claimed 260 lives, including on the ground. Fuel control switches have become central to the investigation into the cause.
Air India said today it had finished all fuel switch inspections on its Boeing 787 Dreamliners, as well as the entire fleet of 737 MAX at Air India Express.
Which routes is Air India bringing back?
Air India is bringing four of its international routes back to full service by 1 August.
Not only that, but the airline is introducing a brand new route too. From 1 August, Air India will introduce a new three-times weekly service between Ahmedabad and London Heathrow.
However, this replaces the current five-times weekly flights to London Gatwick; those will not come back until September.
The fully restored routes are:
- Delhi – London Heathrow will have 24 weekly flights from 16 July.
- Delhi – Zurich increases from four to five weekly flights from 1 August.
- Delhi – Tokyo Haneda returns to full seven-times weekly service from 1 August.
- Delhi – Seoul Incheon will be fully restored to five weekly flights by 1 September.
While Air India is restoring parts of its schedule, several routes remain fully suspended. These are:
- Amritsar – London Gatwick
- Goa – London Gatwick
- Bengaluru – Singapore
- Pune – Singapore
Many Air India routes remain on a reduced service
Despite the partial restoration, a number of routes will continue to operate at reduced frequencies.
Bengaluru-London Heathrow drops to four-times weekly from 1 August.
Several European cities,including Paris, Milan, Copenhagen, Vienna, and Amsterdam,will see reduced services in August.
In North America, key routes such as Delhi-Chicago, Delhi-San Francisco, Delhi-Toronto, and Delhi-New York JFK will continue with trimmed frequencies.
Air India said it is proactively contacting passengers affected by changes or cancellations, offering either rebooking on alternative flights or full refunds.
With the updated schedules, the airline will operate more than 525 international flights per week across 63 routes.
No issues found on fuel control switches on Boeing 787s
Air India’s gradual restoration of operations reflects a cautious yet steady return to normalcy.
The airline said today that it has completed the checks on the Boeing 787 fuel control switches and found no problems on any of the aircraft.
According to reporting by NDTV, an internal memo to pilots read, “Over the weekend, our engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of FCS on all our Boeing 787 aircraft. The inspections have been completed and no issues were found.”
The memo further said that the entire Boeing 737 MAX fleet of Air India Express had also been inspected. No issues were identified.
India’s aviation regulator, the DGCA, had ordered inspection of some Boeing aircraft following the tragic accident. The accident investigation is centring in on a movement of the fuel control switches to the CUTOFF position.
The FAA issued an advisory in December 2018 highlighting concerns about the locking mechanism on engine fuel switches.
The bulletin was non-mandatory and Air India was not required to act at the time, but with these inspections complete, the airline has confirmed no such fault exists on its aircraft.
