Air India Resumes Delhi-Rome: Award Seats Wide Open for Booking
Air India is bringing back Delhi-Rome from March 2026. New route = full award availability. Here's how many seats are open and what it costs in points.
Air India is resuming flights between Delhi and Rome from March 2026 - a route they last operated until March 2021.
📍 Delhi (DEL) → Rome (FCO)
📅 March 25, 2026 onwards | 4x weekly
🛫 Boeing 787-8
Schedule:
DEL → FCO: 1:15pm – 6:55pm (AI123)
FCO → DEL: 8:50pm – 9:00am+1 (AI122)
Why This Matters for Points & Miles Enthusiasts
Whenever an airline launches a new route (or resumes an old one), award availability is usually wide open. Airlines need to fill seats, and award inventory tends to be generous in the early days.
This is exactly what we're seeing with Delhi-Rome right now.
Current Award Availability
As of now, here's what's available for one-way bookings:
✅ Economy: 6 seats available
✅ Business: 5 seats available
Points required (one-way from Delhi):
Economy: 40,000 Maharaja Club miles
Business: 1,00,000 Maharaja Club miles
This kind of availability won't last forever - especially for business class. If Rome is on your list, now is a good time to lock in your seats before the route gets popular.
A Note on the Aircraft
Air India is deploying the Boeing 787-8 on this route. This is one of their older aircraft, so don't expect the newest business class product here.
If you're planning to book business class, check out our Air India Business Class Aircraft Guide to understand what you're getting - the 787-8 doesn't have the new suites you'd find on the A350 or refurbished 777-200LR.
Bottom Line
New routes = award seats. If you have been wanting to visit Rome, this is your window to book while availability is good. You can use Maharaja Club miles, or book through any Star Alliance partner program - United MileagePlus, Aeroplan, Singapore KrisFlyer, and others. 4x weekly frequency gives you decent flexibility, and the timings work well for connecting from other Indian cities through Delhi.
