Air India Boeing 787-8 Business Class, Delhi to Sydney

Air India is the only airline flying non-stop between Delhi and Sydney. Qantas has withdrawn from the route, leaving the Indian flag carrier alone on the city pair, and the aircraft it uses is the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. That combination sets up a reasonable expectation: a modern widebody, a flagship long-haul market, and a national carrier with something to prove. The reality is more mixed. The service on board is genuinely good. Almost everything around it — the lounge in Delhi, the seat itself, the entertainment library and the meal timing — lags behind what other carriers offer on flights into Australia.

This review covers the Delhi to Sydney leg, a journey of roughly 12.5 hours arriving into Sydney early in the morning.

Delhi departure: priority channels and a quiet lounge

Indira Gandhi International Airport handles premium passengers through a dedicated Business and First Class international departures channel, and on the day of this flight it moved quickly through both security and passport control. A Business Class ticket also grants priority check-in if Delhi is where your journey starts — less relevant if, as here, you arrive on a domestic connection with a boarding pass already in hand.

Air India's international Business Class lounge in Delhi is the weakest part of the ground experience. It is quiet and has plenty of seating, but there is little else going on. Power points are scarce and awkwardly placed, which is a genuine problem on a long connection. Air conditioners are dotted around because parts of the lounge get warm.

The catering is light: a handful of hot dishes at the buffet, with the balance made up of snacks. The drinks offering disappoints more, relative to the airline's own marketing. The lounge is dry, and the self-serve fridge and the staffed bar dispense the same soft drinks. Faced with that, no laptop power in a usable spot and a long wait, the sensible move was to leave and set up at a nearby café with a socket and airport views. That the café beats the flagship home-hub lounge on the basics tells you where things stand.

The Boeing 787 Business Class cabin

Air India's Boeing 787-8 Business Class is laid out 2-2-2. That configuration has largely disappeared from long-haul premium cabins elsewhere, and its shortcomings are well known: window passengers must climb past a seatmate to reach the aisle, and aisle passengers become that obstruction in turn.

If you are travelling alone, the centre pair is the seat to target — both face a different aisle, so neither passenger is trapped. Couples may prefer a window duo, where stepping over a partner matters less. The seat itself is the bigger issue. It is the same model that has been flying on other carriers' widebodies for around a decade, and it looks out of place in a Dreamliner cabin. The 787 offered Air India a chance to reinvent its long-haul product and that chance was not taken.

There are genuine positives. Storage is plentiful, and because the footrest does not move you can use it throughout the flight, including take-off and landing if your legs reach. It is a flat bed, which on an overnight sector is a substantial upgrade on the best seats offered by low-cost long-haul operators. Measured against Qantas or Singapore Airlines on routes between Australia and India, though, it does not compete. This is a comfortable way to fly if award availability points you here, and a clear compromise if it does not.

Food and drink

Service begins on the ground with a choice of buttermilk or watermelon juice. After departure, the crew work the cabin with a bar cart. Champagne is Lanson Brut NV; the gin is Gordon's, serviceable but unambitious for a long-haul premium cabin. A roving snack basket accompanies the first drink.

As you would expect of an Indian carrier, vegetarian food is not treated as a special meal — it is a standard choice at every service, and on this flight the vegetarian options were the more interesting ones.

The first service offered a Caprese salad with pesto and olives, or a chicken mortadella salad with mustard, potato, papaya, lettuce and tomato. The salad was fresh but small. Mains ran to four choices: Kadai Paneer with pulao, dal makhani and subz miloni; a zucchini cheddar steak with roasted vegetables; grilled king prawns with fennel cream sauce and herb couscous; and chicken sheekh masala with pulao, palak channa dal and masala potato wedges. The Kadai Paneer was the most substantial vegetarian option and it was good, served with foil-wrapped bread that arrived warm. Where the meal fell down was choice: the menu lists options for both the side bread and the dessert, yet both arrived pre-placed on every tray. Cheese and biscuits follow.

The midnight meal problem

The second service is the real flaw. Roughly four hours after the first meal ended, the cabin lights came up to full brightness for meal two of two — near 1am Sydney time on a flight landing around 7am, exactly when a passenger trying to reset to the destination time zone wants to be asleep.

There is no breakfast service later. The crew, to their credit, were happy to hold the meal until closer to landing when asked. The problem is that nobody offers this before the lights go on. Ask about deferring the second meal before you sleep, and pack an eye mask.

Held-over choices included a chickpea and paneer wrap or a chicken tikka wrap, both with masala steamed corn, or a burrito bowl, with mini idli chaat and apple cinnamon cake on the side. The wrap was dry and unremarkable; the cake was better. Barista-style coffee is available on request even though it does not appear on the menu. Menus, meanwhile, are photocopied onto plain A4 paper, and there was no wine list at all.

Service and entertainment

Crew performance was the highlight. Amenities arrive within minutes of boarding — an amenity kit, blanket, socks, slippers, pyjamas and a selection of reading material with a reasonable number of English-language titles. Across the whole flight the call bell was barely needed; the crew responded to glances and empty glasses, and were flexible when asked to rework the meal timing.

Entertainment is where the product falls away again. The 15.1-inch screens are adequate and the supplied headphones passable, but the library is thin: the music and games categories were empty, and the newest Hollywood section carried only a handful of films, none of them recent. Television programming exists, buried inside a 'Video Features' category in the corner of the home screen, and at least one episode was encoded so that a black border framed the entire picture. One curiosity: Air India runs a second safety demonstration before landing.

The verdict

Air India's Boeing 787 Business Class is a passable long-haul option rather than a compelling one. Its single genuine advantage is the non-stop Delhi to Sydney routing, which no other airline now offers, and which makes it the fastest way between those two cities. Qantas still serves Delhi to Melbourne if that suits your plans better.

The crew were the strongest part of the experience. The lounge, the dated 2-2-2 seat and the sparse entertainment all need work, and the full-lights midnight meal should be reconsidered, or at least flagged before passengers settle in to sleep.

The redemption maths does not help either. Booking this flight through KrisFlyer costs more miles than routing Delhi to Sydney via Singapore on Singapore Airlines, and a Qantas itinerary via Melbourne also prices below the Air India non-stop. You are paying a premium in points for a less comfortable seat, with directness as the compensation.

Frequently asked questions

Does Air India fly non-stop between Delhi and Sydney? Yes. Air India is the only airline operating the route non-stop, following Qantas' withdrawal. The flight takes roughly 12.5 hours.

What aircraft does Air India use to Australia? Boeing 787 Dreamliners operate Air India's services to both Sydney and Melbourne.

What is the Business Class seat layout? The Boeing 787-8 Business Class cabin is configured 2-2-2, so window-seat passengers must step past their seatmate to reach the aisle.

Which is the best seat for a solo traveller? The two centre seats in each row. Each faces a different aisle, so neither passenger has to climb over the other.

Does the seat lie flat? Yes, the seat converts to a fully-flat bed, which matters on an overnight sector.

Is vegetarian food easy to get in Air India Business Class? Yes. Vegetarian is a standard menu option at every service rather than a special meal request, and multiple vegetarian mains are typically offered.

Can I sleep through the second meal service? The cabin lights come up to full brightness for the second meal a few hours after the first, but crew were willing to hold the meal until closer to landing when asked. Raise it before you go to sleep.

Is the Delhi Business Class lounge worth arriving early for? Not especially. It is quiet with plenty of seating, but power points are limited, the food is mostly light snacks and no alcohol is served.

This information is general in nature. It does not take your personal circumstances into account.