Flights to India: Air India’s fuel surcharge for Australia is US$210

Air India’s fuel surcharge on tickets between Australia and India is now US$210 each way, which makes US$420 on a return: two sectors, each at the one-way rate. It applies to bookings made from 11am India time on Friday 9 October, which was 4.30pm in Sydney and Melbourne, so it is built into the fares of the airline’s flights to India from Australia booked since then, including those for December and January.

Three other changes sit alongside it. Air India’s Delhi to Melbourne route was scheduled to return to daily flights from 1 September, on a larger aircraft with a First Class cabin. Western Sydney International’s first link to Asia, a Singapore Airlines flight to Changi, begins in late November, and no Indian airline is on the federal government’s list of carriers for the new airport. And since Thursday 15 October, Air India and Singapore Airlines have been able to sell each other’s eligible flights between India and Singapore without attaching one of their own.

From US$150 in early March to US$210 in October

Air India’s release of 8 October sets one figure per region. Australia’s US$210 is close to North America’s US$215 and above the US$135 charged for Europe, including the United Kingdom. The airline attributed the revision to the “continued increase in Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices” and said it would review its surcharges periodically.

What the release omits is the figure it replaced, and the airline’s earlier statements fill in only part of the record. The charge on Australian routes stood at US$150 in early March and rose to US$200 for bookings from 18 March; an April revision then set it at US$280 per passenger, per sector. In July the Indian news agency ANI reported, citing unnamed sources, that the Australian figure had been cut to US$200. Set against early March, the October figure is US$60 higher.

The March and April rounds exempted bookings already made. Both statements said existing tickets would not attract a new surcharge “unless customers seek date or itinerary changes that require a recalculation of the fare”. On tickets issued before 9 October, the October release says nothing.

Fewer flights to India in winter, then a bigger plane for Melbourne

The surcharge follows a winter of thinner schedules. In May, Air India cut Delhi to Melbourne and Delhi to Sydney from seven flights a week to four for June to August, citing continued airspace restrictions over certain regions and “record high jet fuel prices for international operations”. Those conditions, it said, significantly affected the commercial viability of some planned services.

Melbourne gained a bigger aircraft in the middle of that winter. From Wednesday 1 July, Air India began flying a Boeing 777-300ER on the route, with eight First Class suites, 40 flat beds in Business and 280 Economy seats. The Boeing 787-8 it replaced had 18 Business and 241 Economy seats, so each 777 flight has 69 more seats, and First Class is new to the route. In June the airline said the route was due to return to seven flights a week from Tuesday 1 September, and its Melbourne booking page lists seven weekly flights from Delhi.

Air India has said less about Sydney. The June release gave no frequency for that route, noting that the airline also flies non-stop between Delhi and Sydney. Its Sydney booking page also lists seven weekly flights from Delhi, with a caveat that frequency may vary with seasonal schedules.

Western Sydney’s first flight to Asia leaves at 11.55pm

Western Sydney International’s first passenger flight was set for 11am on Sunday 25 October, a Jetstar service to the Gold Coast, with Air New Zealand due to start flying to Auckland the next day. Singapore Airlines begins a daily service to Changi on Monday 23 November, using an Airbus A350-900 with 40 Business and 263 Economy seats.

The timetable to 27 March 2027 has SQ202 leaving western Sydney at 11.55pm and landing in Singapore at 5.05am the next day. Dai Haoyu, the airline’s senior vice president of marketing planning, said western Sydney’s late-night departure capacity would enable connections through Changi to “more than 130 global destinations served by the SIA Group”. The announcement does not mention India.

The federal list names three more international carriers: Vietjet, which begins a twice-weekly Ho Chi Minh City service on Saturday 9 January 2027; Fiji Airways, which starts flying to Nadi on Friday 19 March 2027; and Qatar Airways, flying to Doha from December 2027. None of the airlines on it is Indian.

Changi, and the eight Indian cities beyond it

Changi is also where the partnership change applies. Until Thursday 15 October, an eligible codeshare flight operated by Air India and booked through Singapore Airlines had to be combined with a flight Singapore Airlines operated, and the same applied the other way round. Since then, customers can book eligible flights between India and Singapore run by either airline “on a standalone basis” through the other carrier’s website, app or appointed travel agencies. The change covers 126 weekly flights between Singapore and eight Indian cities: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

The two announcements stand apart. The partnership release mentions Australia once, in a list of regions the airlines’ hubs reach, and Singapore Airlines’ western Sydney release does not mention Air India.

For a December trip, the surcharge is the change that shows up on every new Air India booking between Australia and India, and the airline says it will keep reviewing it. The map has moved more slowly. Melbourne’s flight to Delhi was scheduled to go daily again from September, on a bigger plane. No Indian airline is on the federal list for Western Sydney, and the new airport’s first flight to Asia, from late November, leaves at five minutes to midnight for Singapore.