Air India to cut 15% of long-haul widebody operations until mid-July 2025

Air India has announced that it will cancel 15% of its wide-body long-haul flights until mid-July 2025. The announcement came amid a range of issues plaguing the airline, none more so than the fallout from the Air India flight AI171 accident in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. The accident killed 241 people and marked the world’s deadliest aviation disaster in a decade. The situation is being compounded by multiple airspace closures on the carrier’s route network, additional maintenance checks, geopolitical tensions, and mounting delays.

The cuts, effective until at least mid-July, were being implemented “to ensure stability of operations, better efficiency and minimise inconvenience to passengers,” the Tata Group-owned airline said.

Following a spate of cancellations and delays, Air India said on July 18, 2025, that it would be making the cuts to its long-haul flying program to stabilize what has been a difficult few weeks for the airline. The carrier had already been under pressure following the closure of Pakistan’s airspace in June 2025, which meant that Air India flights had to be rerouted, causing journey times to lengthen and, in some cases, some flights to Europe and beyond had to make intermediary stops to refuel.

Abdul N Quraishi – Abs / ShutterstockThe situation was then exacerbated by the loss of AI171, which resulted in Air India’s widebody aircraft, such as the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner fleet, being taken out of service for engine checks.  Lastly, on June 13, 2025, hostilities between Israel and Iran erupted, closing Iranian airspace and causing even more rerouting of flights. The re-routing means not only longer flight times, but also rolling delays to flight schedules, which are difficult to recover from.

According to the online publication Mint, this situation has led to led to cancellations, delays, and flights turning back to their point of origin. There have also been diversions due to technical faults on other Air India aircraft as well as bomb threats. While before it was taking around 18 hours for an Air India aircraft to return to Delhi from a typical European destination, it has more recently been taking nearer to 22 hours, impacting that aircraft’s next flights.

In the six days up until June 18, 2025, the airline suffered 83 cancellations overall. To reduce this number and the effect on passengers, the airline has said it will be devising a revised long-haul widebody schedule, “in the coming days.”

Following the loss of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner VT-ANB in Ahmedabad, according to ch-aviation, the airline now operates a fleet of 26 787-8 Dreamliners, seven 787-9 Dreamliners, six Boeing 777-200LRs, 19 Boeing 777-300ERs, and six Airbus A350s.

Paddytakesphotos / ShutterstockData obtained from Cirium shows that the airline operates 639 widebody long-haul aircraft per week, although this figure accounts for some flights making technical stops en route. Out of this total,  305 are on 787-8, 80 on 787-9, and 192 on the 777s. There are 62 flights on the A350. A 15% reduction of the overall schedule would mean 96 flights a week being cancelled.

Safety checks continue

Meanwhile, the airline has said in a statement that inspections had been completed on 26 of its 33 Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft, and those 26 have been cleared for service. The remaining planes will be checked “in the coming days,” and additional checks are also planned for its Boeing 777 fleet, Air India added.

On June 17, 2025, Air India’s Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said the aircraft operating AI171 (VT-ANB) had a clean engine history. In an interview with Indian broadcaster Times Now, Chandrasekaran said Air India flight 171’s right engine was new and installed in March 2025, and that the left engine was last serviced in 2023.

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