Air India, on January 22, began special domestic flights with the first of its newly-inducted Airbus A350-900, as a part of crew familiarisation and to meet regulatory compliance requirements. The airline began operations on the Bengaluru-Mumbai sector, and to Chennai and Hyderabad later in the day.
The twin-engine widebody jet, with a range of 18,000 km, is in a 316-seat three-class configuration (business, premium economy, and economy), and Air India is the first carrier in the SAARC region (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) to be operating this aircraft type.
Passengers from Chennai can fly on the Mumbai-Chennai, Chennai-Bengaluru, and Chennai-Hyderabad sectors every day, except on Tuesday, which is scheduled as a Bengaluru-Delhi operation. An airline official said the travel window was between January 22 and February 29 — “it could be extended and include more sectors” — and travellers can expect “a better inflight experience”.
On the Mumbai-Chennai flight on Monday (AI 589), which had a complement of 12 crew, international travel vloggers Sam Chui and Josh Cahill were among the 314 passengers.
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