New Delhi: Air India Express announced on Thursday the complete restoration of connectivity across its West Asia network following the reintroduction of direct flights to Kuwait and Salalah in Oman. The critical operations, which had been temporarily suspended due to regional geopolitical tensions and airspace restrictions stemming from the US-Iran military escalation earlier this year, are being reinstated in a phased manner starting this week from major Indian transit points including Kozhikode and Bengaluru.
The budget carrier commenced its network restoration on July 2, 2026, with the resumption of flights on the Kozhikode-Salalah sector, a route set to operate twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Following this, flight services linking Kozhikode with Kuwait will resume on July 3, initially running a single weekly operation on Fridays before increasing to three flights a week on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays from July 5. Similarly, direct connectivity between Bengaluru and Kuwait will restart on July 4 with an introductory once-a-week Friday service, which will be ramped up to three weekly flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays starting July 7. To streamline the international transit experience, the airline confirmed that all upcoming flights arriving in and departing from Kuwait will operate exclusively out of Terminal 4 at Kuwait International Airport.
Under the newly established operational schedule, the Kozhikode-Salalah flight is timed to depart at 11:00 AM to arrive at 1:05 PM, with the return leg leaving Salalah at 2:15 PM and landing back in Kozhikode at 7:45 PM. The initial Friday Kozhikode-Kuwait service will take off at 7:30 AM and touch down at 10:05 AM, while its return flight will leave Kuwait at 11:05 AM to arrive at 6:50 PM. Under the expanded schedule active from July 5, the flight will depart Kozhikode at 2:15 AM to arrive in Kuwait at 4:50 AM, with the corresponding return flight departing Kuwait at 5:50 AM and reaching Kozhikode at 1:35 PM. Passengers on the Bengaluru-Kuwait route will see departures from Karnataka at 2:25 AM, arriving at 4:50 AM, with return services exiting Kuwait at 5:50 AM and reaching Bengaluru at 1:25 PM.
The inclusion of Salalah enables Air India Express to operate from two premier airports in the Sultanate of Oman, alongside Muscat International Airport. Complementing this expansion, the carrier has also reinstated flights between Muscat and Mangaluru starting July 3, reinforcing its current volume of approximately 40 weekly services operating from Muscat to seven distinct Indian destinations. Globally, the carrier connects 18 Indian domestic stations with 13 prime West Asian cities across Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates through an extensive schedule of nearly 780 weekly flights. This network restoration runs alongside aggressive capacity additions, including newly launched domestic and international routes connecting Navi Mumbai with Abu Dhabi, Guwahati with both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Bengaluru with Phuket, and Pune with Amritsar, bringing the airline’s total operational footprint out of Bengaluru to 415 weekly flights spanning 30 domestic and seven international destinations.
