Air India first airline to commence scheduled Boeing 787 Dreamliner service to Paris CDG (Roissy)

by Devesh Agarwal

National carrier Air India, became the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner operator to commence scheduled commercial services to Paris, Charles De Gaulle (Roissy) airport earlier today.


AI-143 will depart Delhi at 13:10 daily, arrive Paris, at 18:05.
AI-142, will depart Paris 21:30, arrive Delhi at 10:10 the next day.

Air India is gradually expanding operations of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners to international destinations. Presently, the airline operates its Dreamliners fly from Delhi to Dubai and Frankfurt, in addition to some domestic sectors.

The Dreamliner is designed for the medium to long haul sectors and it was expected the carrier would deploy its aircraft to London and Tokyo, apart from Paris. However, repeated technical glitches have lowered the despatch reliability of this aircraft type, forcing the carrier to use its Dreamliners on domestic routes till these issues are fully sorted out with the manufacturer, Boeing, and various other system vendors.

Air India has received six of the fuel efficient Dreamliners till date, the latest arriving on January 4.

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Singapore Airlines opens new SilverKris lounge at New Delhi IGI airport T3

Singapore Airlines has opened its new Silver Kris lounge at New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 3, its 13th lounge worldwide.

The 80 seat capacity lounge is made with wood and marble tones. The lounge is open to First and Business Class passengers of Singapore Airlines as well as elite members of PPS Club, KrisFlyer Elite Gold and Star Alliance Gold members.

The airline’s Senior Vice President Product and Services Tan Pee Teck said

“We chose Delhi as it is one of our busiest markets in India, with two flights a day to Singapore. It is also part of our ongoing commitment to customer service, which we believe starts from the ground and continues in the air. By offering customers an inviting space to relax in comfort, we hope to enhance their travel experience even before they board their flight,”

The lounge will offer hot meals, light snacks and beverages along with Internet access terminals and complimentary wireless broadband.

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Air India to smooth international connections at Delhi T3 for south Indian cities

In a bid to try and wrest back some of the traffic being lost to foreign carriers, India's national carrier Air India will introduce a daily hub and spoke flight from the southern Indian cities of Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi to Delhi with effect from October 31, 2010, to connect its non-stop north America flights to New York, Chicago, and Toronto.

This announcement is also an indirect confirmation that the mega Terminal 3 or T3 at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport is finally coming to grips with its many teething troubles and will commence domestic operations next month.

Air India has scheduled outbound flights to New York JFK, Chicago O'Hare, Toronto Pearson, around midnight.

• AI 101 departs Delhi T3 at 00:40 and arrives New York at 06:45
• AI 127 departs Delhi T3 at 01:05 and arrives Chicago at 07:00
• AI 187 departs Delhi T3 at 01:25 and arrives Toronto at 07:45

The domestic connections outbound
AI 643 departs Chennai 20:10 and arrives Delhi 23:05
AI 623 departs Bangalore 20:10 and arrives Delhi 22:45
AI 127 departs Hyderabad 21:35 and arrives Delhi 23:40
AI 693 departs Kochi 19:35 and arrives Delhi 22:45

Air India's daily code-share flights to Zurich and Vienna and thrice-weekly flights to Moscow, will also be connected via these flights, but with three and half hours transit time at Delhi. Passengers will have to take earlier flights to connect to the carrier's four weekly non-stops to Tokyo Narita.

On the inbound the New York flight arrives Delhi at 16:45 and the Chicago flight arrives at 17:00. There are matching flights back with a transit time of about 3~3.5 hours at Delhi.

• AI 642 departs Delhi 20:15 arrives Chennai 22:45
• AI 622 departs Delhi 20:10 arrive Bangalore 23:05
• AI 126 departs Delhi 18:30 arrives Hyderabad 20:35
• AI 692 departs Delhi 19:45 arrives Kochi 22:55

The Toronto flight arrives at Delhi at 11:25 and passengers will use earlier flights to the southern cities.

Air India is finally building on a hub that leverages the integrated terminal 3 at Delhi. An Air India spokesman confirmed that the planned Delhi-Melbourne flight will also have timings to maximise domestic connections, though it is hard to see passengers from southern India flying so far north to connect; but then, the maximum traffic from India to Australia is from the northern hinterlands.

The spokesman also confirmed that Air India has no plans to reduce its operational and maintenance presence in Mumbai and that is not good news for airport operator MIAL who would love to get the vacated space of the Air India hangars at Kalina.

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Video: The making of IGI airport Terminal 3

The aero buzz in India is centred at the nation's capital New Delhi. Last week it was the exit of SpiceJet CEO Sanjay Aggarwal. This week is the soon to be opened Terminal 3 or T3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Airport operators have produced a video on the evolution of IGI airport and the construction of T3, and have shared it with Bangalore Aviation. After watching the video, please do leave a comment with your thoughts on T3.

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