Air India & Virgin Atlantic help offset Jet Airways' exit

Air India is to launch a new three times weekly service between Amritsar and London Stansted Airport on 31-Oct-2019. Air India will deploy Boeing 787-8 aircraft with 256 seats (18 business class and 238 economy seats).

This will be Stansted's first ever scheduled nonstop link with India and the only passenger route connecting the Essex airport with Asia. It will also be the only direct flight between Amritsar and any London airport, adding a second UK service from the Punjabi city after its Birmingham service, operated by Air India since Feb-2018.

Air India's new service is a further boost to the UK-India market following the collapse of Jet Airways in Apr-2019. Oct-2019 will also mark Virgin Atlantic's return to the Mumbai-Heathrow market, in competition with British Airways and Air India.

In addition, the UK-India market leader British Airways has added frequencies to its Mumbai-London Heathrow service and Air India has resumed its Amritsar-Birmingham operation.

Much of the capacity gap left by Jet Airways in the UK-India market will have been filled by the end of winter 2019/2020, in spite of there being fewer airlines (although LCC entrants may start to appear). Moreover, the route network is starting to offer more choices.