Air India delivers a Christmas gift for British Indians

(Front left) William Pearson, Birmingham Airport’s Aviation Development Director and (front right) Vishwanath Panyam, Air India’s Astt. General Manager, are pictured with flight crew (Captain Chowdry) on board the new Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner service to Delhi and Amritsar from Birmingham Airport on Sunday 21st December.

Birmingham Airport and Air India celebrated the start of daily flights between Birmingham, Delhi and Amritsar today (21Dec) after the carrier took delivery of its 18th Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’.

By increasing services from four to seven, Air India now offers more than 3,500 seats on the route each week, with additional services operating on Sundays, Fridays and Saturdays. This growth comes just 16 months after launching the Birmingham route, which has carried around 110,000 passengers.

(Front left) William Pearson, Birmingham Airport’s Aviation Development Director and (front right) Vishwanath Panyam, Air India’s Astt. General Manager, are pictured with flight crew (Captain Chowdry) on board the new Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner service to Delhi and Amritsar from Birmingham Airport on Sunday 21st December.

Speaking at the launch of the new schedule on Sunday evening, William Pearson, Birmingham Airport’s Aviation Development Director, said, “The start of this new schedule by Air India this weekend means that Midlanders now have even more choice and direct access to India from Birmingham and we are very thankful to Air India for recognising the huge demand in Birmingham’s catchment from business and leisure travellers.”

The West Midlands receives more foreign direct investment from India than any other region outside of London and Birmingham’s VFR market grew by 71% in 2013, now attracting more visitors from India than any English city other than London.

Vishwanath Panyam, Air India’s Astt. General Manager, added, “There is a vast market in the Midlands region, which is home more than 200,000 British-Indian people who visit India to visit friends and relatives as well as many Indian owned businesses. Air India is therefore pleased to be able to offer more capacity and connectivity to this market across the whole of India on the comfortable, quiet and state of the art Boeing-787 Dreamliner aircraft.”

The new programme is on sale now with attractive fares, through www.airindia.com or via travel agents.

Flights arrive from Amritsar and Delhi at 1700 daily and depart from Birmingham for the return leg at 2030 each evening.

The Dreamliner operates a 256 seat cabin, consisting of 18 business class and 238 economy seats.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a long range, mid-size wide-body, twin-engine jet airliner, and is designed to provide ‘invisible comfort’. The cabin air pressure is the equivalent of 6,000 feet altitude – 2,000 feet lower than other aircraft. This improves oxygen absorption into the blood, reducing in-flight headaches, dizziness and fatigue. Passengers also enjoy better air humidity, to arrive at their destination refreshed.

The B787 has been designed to be 20% more fuel efficient than the B767 it is to replace.