In a bid to optimize its network and improve passenger experience, Air India on Wednesday said it will deploy older Vistara A320 aircraft, known for its premium cabin offerings, on five major metro-to-metro routes. . These include Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Hyderabad, Delhi-Bengaluru, Mumbai-Bengaluru and Delhi-Hyderabad.

As part of its ambitious transformation plan, the Tata group-owned airline will continue to operate a daily flight on select routes using wide-body aircraft, including the Boeing 777 and Airbus A350. This service will be available on Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru and Delhi-Hyderabad routes, providing a luxury flight option to travelers.

Following full-service carrier Vistara’s recent merger with Air India earlier this month, the airline is operating Vistara’s popular A320 series aircraft for select flights. To differentiate these flights, they will have the prefix “AI2” in their flight numbers.

In a statement, Air India revealed that the A320 aircraft will operate in a three-class configuration – business, premium economy and economy – offering passengers more choice. Across the five metro routes, Air India will operate more than 1,000 weekly flights and offer 35,000 premium seats, which include premium business and economy classes, every week.

The main route frequencies include

• Delhi-Mumbai: 56 daily flights
• Delhi-Bengaluru: 36 daily flights
• Delhi-Hyderabad: 24 daily flights
• Mumbai-Bengaluru: 22 daily flights
• Mumbai-Hyderabad: 18 daily flights

The airline highlighted that flight schedules have been optimized to ensure departures are spread throughout the day without reducing overall frequency.

“The merger of Vistara with Air India has opened up new opportunities to enhance our customer offering. By combining the strengths of both full-service carriers, we can now offer our best narrowbody product on routes where there is demand for high-frequency, full-service travel,” said Campbell Wilson, CEO and Managing Director of ‘Air India.

The carrier, which currently operates a fleet of 208 aircraft, including 67 wide-body aircraft, plans to expand this strategy to more routes as it introduces new aircraft and completes the modernization of its legacy fleet of small aircraft. here 2025.