Air India's new A350-900 aircraft.
Credit: Air India
Bengaluru: Air India on Monday launched scheduled commercial flight operations with India’s first Airbus A350-900 aircraft. The flight – AI 589, which is also the first with the carrier’s new livery – took off from the Kempegowda International Airport here to Mumbai, with “a near-capacity load of passengers”, the airline said.
The aircraft will be deployed initially on the domestic routes for crew familiarisation and achieving regulatory compliance. In this phase, services in the A350 which is part of Air India’s 470 new aircraft can be availed by passengers from Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Later, it will be deployed for long-haul flights to destinations across continents.
AI 589 will operate every day of the week barring Tuesdays, departing from Bengaluru at 7.05 am and landing in Mumbai at 8.50 am.
The interior of Air India's A350-900 aircraft.
Credit: Air India
The public got the first glimpse of the in-flight entertainment and amenities in the aircraft when it was on static display at the recent Wings India 2024, held in Hyderabad. These features will be part of the aircraft as they commence their international operations.
The A350-900 aircraft will have a three-class cabin configuration with 316 seats – 28 private business suites with full-flat beds, 24 premium economy seats with extra legroom and other amenities, and 264 economy seats.
All the seats on the aircraft feature the latest-generation Panasonic eX3 in-flight entertainment system and HD screens offering an “all-new content” for the passengers. Fitted with the Rolls Royce Trent XWB engines, these aircraft are 20% more fuel-efficient than other similar aircraft, the airline said.
The first of Air India’s own 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, registered VT-JRA, was welcomed at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi on December 23, 2023, as it flew in from the Airbus facility in Toulouse, France.