By Air India will switch its Delhi-Manila service to a larger 256-seat Boeing 787 Dreamliner from October 25, 2026, replacing the smaller 188-seat Airbus A321 currently used on the daily route.
The capacity increase reflects rising demand on the sector, which has grown from five weekly flights at launch in October 2025 to a daily operation today.
Aviation analyst Ameya Joshi of Network Thoughts said load factors on the Manila-Delhi sector have twice reached the low 80s, a strong showing for a relatively young international route.
The upgrade comes just as rival carriers move to challenge Air India’s monopoly on the route: IndiGo has sought Philippine regulatory approval to launch its own Manila and Cebu flights.
Philippine Airlines is also targeting entry into the Indian market, with plans to launch Delhi and Mumbai services in the winter schedule under the existing bilateral air services pact.
More than 60,000 Indians visited the Philippines in the first half of 2026 alone, a 43% year-on-year jump that analysts have linked to visa-free access for Indian travellers.
That agreement permits up to 28 weekly flights between Manila and three other Philippine cities and the Indian metros of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, leaving room for further expansion by carriers on both sides.
Indian arrivals in the Philippines rose 43% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, with more than 60,000 Indian travellers visiting the country in that period alone.
Visa-free access for Indian passport holders travelling to the Philippines has been cited by industry watchers as a key driver behind the surge in leisure and business travel between the two countries.
India and the Philippines elevated their bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership in 2025, a diplomatic shift that has coincided with expanded airline interest in connecting the two markets.
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.
Photo by Steve Knight, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
