Air India is expanding wings this winter. The airline will add flights to Melbourne from Mumbai starting December 15, 2023. The thrice a week flights will see the 787-8 Dreamliner being deployed to connect the financial capital of India with the capital of the state of Victoria in Australia. This will augment Air India presence at Melbourne where it flies daily from Delhi. Air India also operates daily to Sydney from Delhi.
AI310 BOM0050 – 1810MEL
AI311 MEL2000 – 0235(+1)BOM
Flights will operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays
Last financial year Melbourne welcomed more Indian visitors than any other Australian city with 433,000 Indian residents flying in and out of Victoria’s international gateway in the 12 months to June. The new Mumbai-Melbourne services will add nearly 40,000 seats per year into the Australian state of Victoria, where the Indian community is estimated at over 200,000, constituting about 40% of the total Indian diaspora in Australia. The new flights will see 17 weekly departures by Air India between India and Australia.
As per Melbourne airport, Mumbai is currently Melbourne’s largest international market without non-stop flights, so we expect this service to be very popular in both directions. Mumbai is the financial capital of India, its second largest airport and a major hub. Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia. Close to 50,000 passengers travelled non-stop between India and Australia (each way) in the April to June quarter this year.
As more B777s are inducted in commercial operations and Air India starts utilising them on routes to London Heathrow, it will free up the 787s. These will then be used to add frequency to existing routes (like that to Copenhagen) and launch new city pairs like Mumbai – Melbourne. The smallest widebody aircraft in the fleet for Air India will thus become a route opener (wherever possible by range). The decision to expand, based on performance, then gives two options – either upgrade the capacity by not changing the frequency or continue using the same aircraft but add frequency. In terms of connections, the game of frequency over capacity gives rich dividends and in another two years from now, Air India will have the right mix to try out these permutations and combinations.
Network Thoughts
This route is a very good addition to Air India’s network. Currently, Mumbai does not have a non-stop route to Australia, with Qantas flying to Bengaluru from Sydney and to Melbourne from Delhi. Air India operates to both Melbourne and Sydney from Delhi. This strengthens Air India’s presence in the Melbourne market.
The Mumbai – Melbourne market is currently served one-stop by Singapore Airlines (which may not mind some traffic going Air India’s way), Thai Airways, Malaysia Airlines on the FSC side. The Vietnamese carriers have tried taking a slice of the traffic in recent quarters.
These timings will help connect Melbourne to London, both ways – a route which does not have any non-stops right now. The transfer passengers are attractive to Air India, but the transfers may not be attractive for passengers, just yet. A higher frequency and product similarity will do wonders, but that is in the pipeline.
What next from here on? Will Air India look at thrice a week service from Bengaluru to Melbourne or will it look at increasing the Mumbai service progressively to Daily before launching another city pair?
Sri Lankan Airlines also serve the Bom-MEL route
Sri Lankan Airlines also serve the Bom-MEL route