Air India will swap in a larger 256-seat Boeing 787 Dreamliner on its Delhi-Manila route from October 25, 2026, replacing the 188-seat Airbus A321 flying the daily service today.
The route has seen steady growth since launching in October 2025 with just five weekly flights, before being upgraded to a full daily schedule as demand built.
Load factors on the Manila-Delhi sector have twice reached the low 80s, according to aviation analyst Ameya Joshi, a figure cited as a key reason behind the capacity increase.
The upgrade lands just as competition arrives on the route, with IndiGo seeking approval from Philippine regulators to launch its own Manila and Cebu services.
Philippine Airlines is also eyeing entry, planning to start Delhi and Mumbai flights during the winter schedule under the existing India-Philippines air services agreement.
Indian visitor numbers to the Philippines jumped 43% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, with visa-free access for Indian travellers seen as a major driver of the surge.
IndiGo, which already dominates India’s domestic skies with roughly two-thirds market share, has been steadily building out its international network beyond South Asia and the Gulf in recent quarters.
The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that Air India will deploy on the upgraded Manila service is a twin-aisle, twin-class aircraft commonly used on the airline’s long-haul international routes.
Air India currently operates the Delhi-Manila route on a daily basis using the 188-seat Airbus A321, having scaled up from an initial five weekly flights when the service launched in October 2025.
Aviation analyst Ameya Joshi, founder of the Network Thoughts blog, said load factors on the Manila-Delhi sector have twice touched the low 80s, reflecting strong and sustained demand on the route.
Philippine Airlines is separately planning to launch its own services to Delhi and Mumbai during the winter schedule, basing its request on the bilateral Philippines-India Air Services Agreement.
Photo by Steve Knight, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
