The flights currently run four times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, but will be upgraded to a daily service from January.
National carrier Air India has launched a new nonstop service between Delhi and Phuket, its second destination in Thailand. A member of Star Alliance, Air India says that the new route is further bolstering its expansion plans in the Far East and Southeast Asia.
Air India operates an Airbus A320neo on Delhi-Phuket, featuring 12 2-2 configured recliners in business class and 150 seats in 3-3 configured economy class.
The flights currently run four times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, but will be upgraded to a daily service from January.
AI 378 will depart from Delhi at 01:10 to arrive in Phuket the same day at 07:10. The return flight AI 379 will take off from Phuket at 08:10 and land in Delhi at 10:50.
“Phuket is a popular global destination and holds a significant base for business and tourism. We are delighted to welcome Phuket into our network and will continue to expand our connectivity and enhance frequency on domestic and international sectors providing more flexibility of choice to our customers and contributing to the growth in the aviation sector,” says Nipun Aggarwal, chief commercial and transformation officer at Air India.
The flag carrier currently operates a total of 26 flights a week to Bangkok, including nonstop service from Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Meanwhile, according to Tourism Authority of Thailand, Air India’s latest connection between Delhi and Phuket is part of the 2,438,043 air-seat capacity between Thailand and India in 2023. This represents a 77 pc rebound over the pre-pandemic year in 2019.
Specifically, during the six-month visa exemption period, from November 2023 to May 2024, the number of flights between the two nations will increase by 3.4 pc to 6,263 flights, while the number of seats will grow about 1.27 pc to 1,312,649 seats, says TAT.
