Air India expands its European network with a new Rome–Delhi route while Air India Express introduces India’s first art-wrapped aircraft, highlighting the group’s strategy combining network growth and cultural branding.
Air India continues to expand its international network while strengthening its cultural identity initiatives, marked by the launch of a new non-stop route between Delhi and Rome and the unveiling of India’s first fully art-wrapped aircraft by its subsidiary Air India Express.
The developments reflect the airline group’s broader strategy of network expansion across Europe alongside branding initiatives designed to showcase Indian culture across its global operations.
Air India launches new Rome route
Air India has inaugurated a new four-times-weekly non-stop service between Delhi and Rome Fiumicino Airport, marking the airline’s return to the Italian capital after nearly six years.
Rome becomes Air India’s eighth gateway in Mainland Europe and the airline’s second destination in Italy after Milan.
Flight AI123 departed Delhi at 13:32 IST on 25 March and landed in Rome the same evening, where it was welcomed by dignitaries from the Embassy of India in Italy, officials from Aeroporti di Roma, and Air India representatives.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by a delegation including H.E. Ms Vani Rao, Ambassador of India to Italy and San Marino; Gaurav Gandhi, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of India in Rome; Swaminathan Krishnamoorthy, Head of Chancery at the Embassy of India in Rome; and senior representatives from Aeroporti di Roma. The event included a traditional Indian lamp-lighting ceremony, cake-cutting and the recognition of the first passenger to board the flight.
Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial Officer of Air India, said:
“Demand for travel between India and Europe continues to grow across both leisure and business segments, with the two nations sharing so much in common culturally, and their increasing exchange that continues to deepen business, trade, and people-to-people ties. We are delighted to reconnect the two historic capital cities while also enabling seamless onward travels via our Delhi hub to and from destinations across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.”
Italy is an important partner for India in areas such as trade, tourism, and cultural exchange. Bilateral trade between the two countries exceeded USD 14 billion in 2025, supported by cooperation in sectors such as engineering, automotive, fashion and design.
Italy is also home to one of the largest Indian communities in continental Europe, with more than 200,000 people of Indian origin contributing to increasing travel demand between the two countries.
Ivan Bassato, Chief Aviation Officer of Aeroporti di Roma, said:
“We are pleased to welcome Air India’s arrival in Rome. The new direct connection to Delhi enhances our offering to the Indian capital and meets the growing travel demand between Italy and India. This new route further strengthens Rome Fiumicino’s role as a leading international hub in the Mediterranean, increasingly central to air links with Asia.”
The Delhi–Rome service operates four times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays using the airline’s Boeing 787-8 aircraft.
The aircraft features a two-class configuration with 18 fully flat beds in Business Class and 241 seats in Economy Class.
The schedule has been designed to facilitate connections via Delhi to multiple destinations across India and Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
With the addition of Rome, Air India now operates non-stop services from India to eight destinations in Mainland Europe: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Zurich.
Air India Express unveils India’s first art-wrapped aircraft
In parallel with network expansion, the group’s low-cost subsidiary Air India Express has unveiled “The Flying Canvas”, India’s first aircraft fully wrapped in contemporary artwork.
The special livery has been applied to a Boeing 737-8 aircraft (VT-BWV) and forms part of the airline’s broader “Tales of India” initiative, which highlights the country’s diverse artistic heritage through aircraft design.
The artwork was created by internationally recognised contemporary artist Osheen Siva in collaboration with the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India’s largest international exhibition of contemporary art.
The aircraft becomes a moving cultural installation designed to showcase Indian artistic identity across the airline’s international route network.
Air India Express has long used aircraft liveries to celebrate India’s cultural heritage, previously featuring artistic references ranging from Raja Ravi Varma paintings to depictions of classical dance forms such as Kathakali, Kathak and Bharatanatyam.
The airline introduced its refreshed brand identity in October 2023, launching the “Tales of India” concept. Each new aircraft tail design now reflects elements of traditional Indian crafts and textiles including Kalamkari, Bandhani, Kanjivaram and Banarasi.
The Flying Canvas project extends this philosophy by transforming the entire aircraft fuselage into a large-scale work of contemporary art.
Osheen Siva, known for a multidisciplinary artistic style that blends heritage and futuristic narratives, created a design depicting a Tamil figure carrying memory and heritage into the future through traditional symbolic motifs.
Siddhartha Butalia, Chief Marketing Officer of Air India Express, said:
“Art is one of the most powerful universal languages – it transcends borders, cultures, and geographies to connect people in ways few things can. With the Tales of India and its extension to The Flying Canvas project, we are literally taking that idea to the skies, transforming an aircraft into a moving expression of living cultural identity.
This initiative reflects how we see travel – not just as a journey between destinations, but as an opportunity to experience, interpret, and connect with culture and communities in meaningful ways. As one of the most culturally engaged airlines globally, we are proud and delighted to create spaces where art, travel, and human connection come together.”
Thomas Varghese, Chief Executive Officer of the Kochi Biennale Foundation, added:
“The Kochi-Muziris Biennale has always been a celebration of art transcending boundaries, bringing contemporary practice out of galleries and into the everyday lives of people. Through this association with Air India Express, that vision literally takes flight.
As this aeroplane traverses over 60 destinations, it carries with it the soul of indigenous culture and the vibrancy of contemporary art to people far beyond our shores. It is a proud moment for us to see art soaring to the skies and igniting conversations between people and cultures – a journey that reminds us that art, like flight itself, has the power to connect the world.”
The collaboration builds on an earlier partnership between Air India Express and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, when the airline previously introduced a bespoke tail design on one of its Boeing aircraft during a previous edition of the event.
The unveiling of a fully art-wrapped aircraft for the 2025–26 Biennale cycle represents the next stage of this collaboration between the aviation sector and India’s contemporary art community.