Air India drops Madrid, Birmingham ops due to Pak conflict

Air India (AI, Mumbai Int'l) has announced it will terminate flights from Delhi Int'l to Birmingham Int'l (including via Amritsar) and Madrid Barajas due to "operational issues" related to aircraft shortages and the closure of the Pakistani airspace, the Times News Network has reported.

The airline said it currently has over twenty-three aircraft grounded and awaiting repairs. According to the ch-aviation fleets module, this number includes six B787-8s used by the carrier on routes to Madrid and Birmingham.

In addition, the closure of the Pakistani airspace extended the duration of Air India's flights to Europe, which in turn raised the number of crew members needed to operate them. Facing a shortage, the Indian flag carrier decided to suspend the two routes.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Air India currently operates 3x weekly to Madrid and 6x weekly to Birmingham, including three flights via Amritsar.


In Europe, Air India also flies from Delhi to Copenhagen Kastrup, Frankfurt Int'l, London Heathrow, Milan Malpensa, Paris CDG, Rome Fiumicino, Stockholm Arlanda, and Vienna. It also flies to Frankfurt and London from Mumbai Int'l, and from Ahmedabad and Bangalore Int'l to London. Flights from Mumbai and Bangalore are not affected by the closure of the airspace over Pakistan as they do not need to overfly the country on the shortest routes, while services from Ahmedabad are affected to a lesser degree.