Air India begins commercial operations of wide-body A350 aircraft

Private carrier Air India on Monday commenced the commercial operations of its first wide-body A350 aircraft with a flight taking off for Chennai from the Mumbai airport.

The 316-seater A350-900 aircraft has a three-class cabin configuration with 28 private business suites with full-flat beds, 24 premium economy and 264 economy seats.

"Air India flight AI-589 took off from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Monday for Chennai, with a full-capacity load of passengers," the airline said in a statement.

The aircraft will initially fly on domestic routes -- Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai -- for crew familiarisation and regulatory compliance. It will later be deployed for long-haul flights to destinations across continents, strengthening Air India's growing wide-body fleet, comprising its own and recently leased aircraft, the airline said.

The first of Air India's own 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, registered VT-JRA, arrived at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport late last month from Airbus' Toulouse manufacturing facility in France.

The induction of the A350 in Air India's fleet is a part of the airline's 470 new aircraft order that it placed early last year.