Air India (AI, Delhi International) is trimming its B777- and B787-operated flights by 15% until at least July 15. This is due to tougher pre-flight safety checks following the AI171 crash earlier this month and accommodating additional flight durations arising from airspace closures in the Middle East.

Three long-haul routes are suspended (Delhi-Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta, Amritsar-London Gatwick, and Goa Mopa-London Gatwick), while other services to Asia, Australia, North America, and Europe will have reduced frequencies.

The carrier will also reduce its narrowbody flying to help with network-wide operational stability and to minimise the risk of last-minute cancellations. The airline says the changes, which include suspending flights on three routes and reducing flights on 19 routes, amount to cuts of less than 5% across its total narrowbody network.

Air India says the narrowbody aircraft reductions are voluntary and will remain in effect until at least July 15. These three suspended routes are Bengaluru International-Singapore Changi, Pune-Singapore, and Mumbai International-Bagdogra. Other cuts are on domestic routes, primarily impacting Mumbai and Delhi services, and also the Chandigarh-Bengaluru city pair.

The service changes follow the crash of a B787-9 at Ahmedabad on June 12, killing all but one onboard and dozens more on the ground. The disaster has sparked comprehensive engine and airframe safety inspections across the entire B787-9 and B787-8 fleets.

Those safety inspections are now complete with the Indian regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), raising no significant aircraft safety concerns.

DGCA issues show-cause notice

However, the DGCA has issued a show-cause notice to Air India about two flights that operated between Bengaluru and London Heathrow in May, during which the crew exceeded its legal working time limits. The June 20 letter, seen by ch-aviation, acknowledges the voluntary disclosures of "repeated and serious" violations of India's Civil Aviation Requirements whereby airline officials scheduled flight crews to operate flights despite lapses in licensing, rest, and recency requirements.

The breaches include but are not limited to unauthorised and non-compliant crew pairings, violations of mandatory licensing and recency norms, and systemic failure in scheduling protocols and oversights. The DGCA named three Air India officials and directed that the airline remove them from their roles and reassign them to non-operational roles. The regulator also ordered that they face internal disciplinary proceedings.

"Any future violation of crew scheduling norms, licensing, or flight time limitations detected in any post-audit or inspection will attract strict enforcement action, including but not limited to penalties, licence suspension, or withdrawal of operator permissions as applicable."

ch-aviation has contacted Air India for comment on the show-cause notice.