UAEDEL

AI · hub Delhi (DEL) · Star Alliance

Hand carry on Air India

Long-haul reach plus a wide domestic network from Delhi and Mumbai.

Ask for a routing All airlines we fly

RouteUAE → DEL

Typical flying time3h 03m

Distance≈2,200 km

Typical outcomeSame-Day

One person beats a parcel networkon Air India

The freight chain is not slow because aircraft are slow, it is slow because a consignment waits at every handover. A courier removes the queues, not the kilometres.

OnBoard CourierOne person. One seat. One signature.

CollectedIn the cabin Delivered in on Air India, same day or next morning

Conventional air freightA parcel in a system, every handover is a queue.

Drop-offAcceptance cut-off Build-upFlight Break-downCustoms Delivered, day 3 to 5

0h24h48h72h96h+

When a seat beats a parcel, the full comparison →

Firm quote in 15 minutes

Tell us what has to fly. We answer with a flight and a price.

Five short questions. A dispatcher replies with a named departure, the delivery hour and one fixed price, day and night.

One named courier from collection to signature
Customs cleared in person on arrival
Licensed UAE company, proper VAT invoices

Operational route facts

Last reviewed: August 2026, carrier line-ups and frequencies are indicative and change with seasonal schedules; your quote is priced on the day’s actual flights.

How the flying actually works

Non-stop links into Delhi (DEL) from the Gulf departure bank, the quote names the exact flight and day-of-week validity:

DXBEmirates (multiple daily)

AUHEtihad (multiple daily)

DOHQatar Airways (multiple daily)

SHJAir Arabia (daily or better)

DXBAir India (multiple daily)

International arrivals at Delhi use T3.

Alternative gateways nearby

JAIJaipur International, Jaipur · ≈230 km straight-line · own Gulf non-stop service

IXCChandigarh Airport, Chandigarh · ≈235 km straight-line · connection gateway

When the primary airport’s timing loses, a late bank, a curfew, a fog morning, the quote compares these alternates with the true road leg included, and names the winner.

220countries and territories on the desk

500+airports a courier can be booked into

15 minfrom your message to a firm price

24/7the operations centre is awake

Three departure boards, one desk: Emirates, flydubai and Etihad for on Air India

A hand-carry is only as fast as the next departure. The desk watches three boards at once and books the one that lands first, then holds the one that leaves next.

Emirates

The night bank out of Terminal 3

Between one and four in the morning Emirates pushes back a wave of widebodies from Terminal 3 that reach Europe before the first meeting and Asia by the afternoon. For on Air India that wave is the reason a courier confirmed at eight in the evening is still delivering the next day.

Widebody only, non-stop to 140 plus cities

flydubai

The short sectors, several times a day

From Terminal 2 flydubai runs the one to five hour sectors: the Caucasus, Central Asia, East Africa, the Balkans, the subcontinent. Where a widebody leaves once a day, flydubai often leaves three times, which turns a missed slot into a ninety minute delay rather than a lost day.

Frequency is the fallback

Etihad

Abu Dhabi as the second runway

Ninety minutes down the E11, Etihad leaves from Zayed International with its own bank of departures and, for the United States, immigration cleared before boarding. When the Dubai departure for on Air India is gone, the desk looks at Abu Dhabi before it looks at tomorrow.

US preclearance at AUH

The desk holds no allegiance to a carrier. The booking goes to whichever board puts a courier at on Air India first, at a fare the quote can carry.

on Air India: every hour it waits is an hour it is not moving.

Five questions, one fixed price, a named flight. The desk answers within 15 minutes, day and night, and you decide.

Price it now How it works

Air India in the network the desk measures

Computed on 2026-09-07 from AeroDataBox scheduled route statistics. The desk holds departure schedules for 571 airports, and for the AI code that yields 132 city pairs across 82 of them. It is a measured sample of the published timetable and not the whole of it. Frequencies move with the season, and a quote is priced on the flights running the day you ask.

82airports on this carrier

33countries and territories reached

132scheduled city pairs held

914average daily flights across them

The schedule the desk holds carries the AI code on 132 city pairs, reaching 82 airports in 33 countries and territories. Some of those sectors are flown by Air India and some are sold under its code and flown by a partner, which is how the published timetable states it and how a booking has to be read. 74.4 per cent of those airports sit on Asian time zones, and the next largest block is on European time zones.

The longest sector held for the carrier is Kolkata (CCU) to San Francisco (SFO) at about 12,578 km, and the shortest is Dehradun (DED) to New Delhi (DEL) at about 208 km. 25.8 per cent of the network is long haul, 34 of the 132 pairs running past 5,000 km. That is the range at which a courier flies through the night and clears customs on the morning of the second calendar day. The airport that appears most often on those pairs is New Delhi (DEL), on 72 of them, which is 54.5 per cent of everything held under this code.

The thickest sector under the code is Mumbai (BOM) to New Delhi (DEL) at about 51.5 movements a day, which across a full day is roughly one every 0.5 hours. On a sector at that cadence a missed departure costs a wait rather than a night. 65 of the 132 pairs run four or more times a day and 18 run once a day or less. The second figure is the one that matters when a consignment leaves the factory late, because on those sectors the desk will quote a different carrier rather than promise an hour it cannot hold. After New Delhi (DEL) the code leans on Mumbai (BOM) on 43, Amritsar (ATQ) on 4, London (LHR) on 4 pairs respectively, and those are the airports a dispatcher looks at second when the first routing is full.

The sectors that carry the AI code most often

From	To	Country	Flights a day	km	Open it
Mumbai BOM	New Delhi DEL	India	51.5	1,138	the pair page
Bangalore BLR	New Delhi DEL	India	50.3	1,710	the pair page
Kuala Lumpur KUL	Singapore SIN	Singapore	43	298	the pair page
Bangalore BLR	Mumbai BOM	India	40	834	the pair page
New Delhi DEL	Hyderabad HYD	India	31.4	1,268	the pair page
New Delhi DEL	Pune PNQ	India	28.2	1,157	the pair page
Kolkata CCU	New Delhi DEL	India	25.9	1,313	the pair page
Mumbai BOM	Hyderabad HYD	India	19.6	623	the pair page
Ahmedabad AMD	New Delhi DEL	India	19.1	757	the pair page
New Delhi DEL	Chennai MAA	India	18.6	1,761	the pair page
New Delhi DEL	Srinagar SXR	India	15.3	642	plan this
Mumbai BOM	Chennai MAA	India	15.3	1,033	the pair page
New Delhi DEL	Patna PAT	India	14.9	857	plan this
New Delhi DEL	Dubai DXB	the United Arab Emirates	14.7	2,184	plan this
Mumbai BOM	Dubai DXB	the United Arab Emirates	14.7	1,926	plan this
New Delhi DEL	Lucknow LKO	India	14.2	423	the pair page

The 16 sectors the AI code appears on most often, out of 132. Flights a day is the average daily scheduled movement on the busier of the two directions, as held on 2026-09-07. The schedule lists a code against a sector whether the carrier operates it or sells it, so read this as where the code can be booked. Distances are great circle, computed from the published coordinates of the two airports.

Where AI meets the UAE gateways

Air India is one of the carriers a courier can board without leaving the Emirates. The desk holds 2 pairs under this code touching Dubai (DXB), so a booking can start at a UAE counter and stay on one ticket to the delivery city.

UAE airport	To	Country	Flights a day	km	Open it
Dubai DXB	New Delhi DEL	India	14.7	2,184	plan this
Dubai DXB	Mumbai BOM	India	14.7	1,926	plan this

Night restrictions on the airports the AI code uses

A hand carry is bought for the hours it saves, and an airport that will not take a movement after a certain hour can spend those hours back. 16 of the 82 airports this code is booked through carry a restriction the desk holds in writing, checked 2026-09-07. Exemptions and seasonal variations exist, and the desk confirms the position with the airport or the carrier before it books.

London (LHR), night restrictions. A night quota system limits movements between 23:30 and 06:00 local. Very few scheduled departures in that window.
Singapore (SIN), night operations. Operates around the clock.
Tokyo (HND), night operations. Operates around the clock; the preferred Tokyo gate for a late departure.
Frankfurt-am-Main (FRA), night restrictions. No scheduled take offs or landings between 23:00 and 05:00 local. A late evening departure that slips past 23:00 does not go until morning.
London (LGW), night restrictions. Night movements are capped between 23:30 and 06:00 local under a seasonal quota.
Vienna (VIE), night restrictions. Movements between 23:30 and 05:30 local are limited.

Published lanes that carry the AI code

The site publishes a page for 346 courier lanes. Air India appears in the schedule on 8 of them, and the one it flies most is Dubai to Delhi at about 14.7 movements a day. That overlap is the honest test of whether a carrier is useful to this desk rather than merely famous.

Dubai to Delhi, about 14.7 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 2,184 km.
Dubai to Mumbai, about 14.7 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 1,926 km.
Mumbai to London, about 8.9 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 7,213 km.
Singapore to Mumbai, about 5.7 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 3,922 km.
Doha to Delhi, about 5.7 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 2,549 km.
Mumbai to Doha, about 4.6 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 2,291 km.
Delhi to Frankfurt, about 3.1 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 6,123 km.
Frankfurt to Mumbai, about 2 scheduled flights a day on the busier direction, 6,571 km.

The countries the AI code opens

Of the 33 countries and territories reached, 24 are reached at a single airport, which for a courier means one airport of entry and a road leg for everything else in that country. The deepest is India with 39 airports on this code. The country desk for India sets out the customs practice, the working hours and the road legs behind these airports.

India (39 airports), United States (3 airports), United Kingdom (3 airports), Saudi Arabia (3 airports), Vietnam (2 airports), Canada (2 airports), Thailand (2 airports), Australia (2 airports), Italy (2 airports), Kazakhstan (1 airports).

Where to go next on the AI network

Each of the 82 airports above has its own atlas entry with the full destination list, and each of the 132 sectors can be opened in the calculator with the flying time, the distance and the delivery hour worked out. Start with the atlas entry for New Delhi (DEL), the route calculator with Dubai to DEL already filled in, the carrier index for the other 236 airlines the desk lists and the airport atlas itself.

Where Air India fits in an OBC routing

Air India is based in India and operates from Delhi (DEL) as a member of Star Alliance. For us a carrier is not a brand preference, it is a departure time. We book Air India when it has the next seat that gets your consignment there, and we combine it freely with any other airline on the same routing because we hold no alliance membership and no exclusive contract.

Cabin baggage reality

As a full-service carrier the cabin baggage allowance is usually workable for a hand-carry, and a premium cabin adds both allowance and rebooking priority. We still confirm the limit for the specific flight and aircraft type before quoting.

Connections

Where a single Air India sector does not reach the destination, the courier connects, and stays with the consignment on every leg, so it is never handed over in transit.

How we book

An ordinary passenger seat on the open market, in the courier's own name, matching the passport exactly. Premium cabins when the consignment or the schedule justifies it.

Customs is separate

The airline moves the aircraft; the courier declares the goods. Entry rules are per country, not per carrier, see our country guides.

Why frequency matters

A carrier with three rotations a day turns a missed departure into a short wait. That is worth more on a deadline than a marginally faster aircraft.

Independence

No alliance, no exclusivity, no volume commitment. The schedule decides, not a supplier agreement.

Destinations and markets this carrier serves for us

Airline timetables change constantly, so rather than reprint a schedule that will be wrong next month, here is what is useful: the markets where Air India regularly appears in our routings, and the pages that describe those lanes in detail. If you need a specific city on Air India, ask and we will check the live schedule.

Country page: India →Mumbai Delhi Bengaluru Chennai Hyderabad Ahmedabad Coimbatore (CJB)Kochi (COK)Surat (STV)Indore (IDR)Nagpur (NAG)Visakhapatnam (VTZ)

Markets in South Asia:

India Pakistan Bangladesh Sri Lanka Nepal Maldives All countries →

On board courier vs air cargo

Whether the seat is on Air India or any other carrier, this is what a courier changes compared with the hold of the same aircraft.

✓ On board courier

A person in a seat

Leaves on the next available flight, often within hours of your call, 24/7.
One named courier holds the consignment from collection to signature.
Travels in the aircraft cabin wherever the airline, cargo classification and security rules permit it; the transport configuration is confirmed before booking.
No warehouse, no consolidation window, no overnight sort.
Customs cleared in person, questions answered at the counter, immediately.
Same-day delivery is realistic on most sectors out of the UAE.
Built for high-value, fragile, temperature-critical goods and originals.
Proof of delivery with signature, ID check and a photograph within minutes.
A human being you can call at any point of the journey.

✕ Air cargo & express freight

A parcel in a system

Waits for the next consolidation and space allocation, not for you.
Passes through many hands: hub, build-up, ramp, break-down, delivery agent.
Rides in the hold, frequently sitting in a warehouse overnight.
Each handover is a queue, and each queue is where hours disappear.
Cleared in a batch by a broker; one query can idle the shipment for a day.
Next day at best on most lanes, two to three days if it is held.
Chain of custody is a scan history, not a person with the box.
Signed for by whoever happens to be at the door.
Right answer for heavy, bulky or non-urgent freight, and we will say so.

To be straight about it: air cargo is not a bad service, it is a different one. It moves weight cheaply and it does that extremely well. A hand-carry buys back hours, and it is worth paying for exactly when an hour of delay costs more than a seat on a plane, which is the case far more often than most shippers assume, and far less often than most courier companies claim.

The full comparison, with costs →

Questions about flying Air India

What clients and couriers ask when they see this carrier on an assignment.

01Are you an agent or partner of Air India?

No. OnBoard Courier is an independent courier management company. We buy ordinary passenger seats on the open market and hold no agency, contract or partnership with any airline. Airline names and marks belong to their owners and are used here only to describe the routes these assignments travel on.

02Will my consignment definitely fly Air India?

Only if that is genuinely the fastest option for your deadline. We book whichever carrier departs next with a seat and a cabin allowance that fits.

03How much can a courier carry on Air India?

As a full-service carrier the cabin baggage allowance is usually workable for a hand-carry, and a premium cabin adds both allowance and rebooking priority. We confirm the exact allowance for the specific flight before quoting.

04Can I fly as a courier on Air India?

If you are in our network, yes, couriers fly whichever airline the assignment requires. We book and pay the ticket and pay a fee per completed assignment.

Need a routing that uses Air India?

Send the two ends and the deadline. We will check the live schedule across every carrier and come back with the fastest realistic option.

Request a quote → Browse countries

Why a courier on Air India rather than a cargo booking

Every logistics option is a trade between cost, speed and control. Sea freight gives up speed. Air cargo gives up control. A charter gives up cost. An on board courier is the only option that keeps speed and control and pays for them with the price of a passenger ticket, which is why it exists at all.

The economics are less strange than they look. A courier assignment costs roughly what a business-class ticket costs, plus a fee and the ground work at each end. Set against a stopped production line, a grounded aircraft, an expiring clinical sample or a tender that closes at noon, that number stops being the interesting part of the conversation very quickly.

It is also worth saying what the service does not fix. It does not make a permit appear, it does not make a sanctioned party acceptable, and it does not make an undeclared battery legal. Where those are the problem, a courier only makes the problem arrive faster, which is why the screening happens before the quote.

On the Delhi lane this matters more than average, because the schedule and the customs position both reward preparation and punish improvisation. The half hour spent on the description of the goods before departure is the half day you do not spend at the border afterwards.

How an assignment routed over Delhi runs

A Delhi assignment is not complicated, but every step has a failure mode, and the difference between an operator and a broker is whether those failure modes were planned for before the courier left the house.

Minute 0 to 15

You tell us what it is

Everything starts with an honest description of the goods. We ask what it is, what it costs, who is receiving it in Delhi and when it must be in their hands. Vague answers produce vague quotes and, far worse, customs problems at the other end.

Minute 15 to 45

We screen it and price it

We check three things at once: whether we may lawfully carry it, whether India will let it in without a permit we do not have, and whether it physically fits an aircraft cabin. Only then do you get a fixed price, and the price includes the ticket, the courier fee, transfers and a hotel where an overnight is unavoidable.

Hour 1 to 3

A named courier is assigned and booked

Assignment is not a raffle. The consignment's value, its regulatory profile and the destination decide who is offered it. For Delhi, visa eligibility usually narrows the list faster than availability does, which is exactly why a global courier network is worth having.

Hour 2 to 4

Collection, sealing and documentation

Collection is a documented handover, not a pickup. Identity checked, contents verified against the invoice, seal applied and numbered, photographs taken, and the file opened. From that point one named person holds the consignment until someone in Delhi signs for it.

In flight

The consignment stays in the cabin

The flight is the boring part, and that is the point. No hold, no handling agent, no transfer between systems, one person, one box, one continuous chain of custody all the way to Delhi (DEL).

On arrival

Customs, then a signature

Clearance at Delhi (DEL) happens with a person standing at the counter who can answer questions about the goods on the spot, which is the whole reason a query takes minutes here and a day in the cargo channel. Then the delivery, in person, against signature and ID.

The paperwork that decides how fast Delhi goes

Nothing delays a hand-carry as reliably as a document that says something different from the box. This is what we prepare with you before the courier leaves, and why each piece matters at Delhi (DEL).

Certificates and permits

Certificates of origin, health and phytosanitary certificates, dangerous goods declarations, export licences for dual-use items, import permits for regulated categories. We identify which of these India wants for your specific commodity at the quoting stage, because discovering it at Delhi (DEL) is far too late.

Tariff classification

The HS code decides the duty, the permits and sometimes whether the goods may enter India at all. We would rather agree the classification with you before departure than watch an officer choose one for us, because the officer's choice is the one that stands.

Named consignee with authority

Someone in Delhi must be entitled to receive the goods and, where clearance requires it, able to act as importer of record. A delivery address without an authorised person behind it is where otherwise perfect assignments stall.

Legalisation and attestation

Documents that must be legalised, apostilled or attested to be valid in India are checked before the courier collects them. A perfectly delivered document that lacks the right stamp has not solved anybody's problem.

Proforma invoice for non-sales

Repairs, exhibition goods, replacements and samples still need a document with a realistic value on it. The value is what the goods are worth, not what you would like the duty to be, an understated value is a customs offence in India rather than a negotiating position.

Duty, tax and who pays it

Import duty and VAT or GST in India are the consignee's cost unless you have agreed otherwise in writing, and the terms should be settled before departure. It is a small conversation before the flight and an expensive one after it.

What a Delhi courier actually costs, and why

We do not publish a price list, because a fixed table would be a lie: the same box on the same route costs differently at four hours' notice than at two days'. What we can do is be exact about which levers move the number, so nothing in the quote is a surprise.

What is always included

Ticket, courier fee, airport transfers, the hotel where an overnight is unavoidable, the documentation work and our operations desk being awake for the whole journey. What is not included is duty and tax in India, and anything you ask for after departure that changes the routing.

The ground legs at both ends

Collection in the Emirates and delivery beyond Delhi (DEL) are part of the job, not an extra. Where the delivery address is a long drive from the airport, or a second domestic sector is needed, we price it in from the start instead of stopping at arrivals.

How much notice you give us

A seat bought four hours before departure costs what a seat bought four hours before departure costs. Nothing about that is a courier margin, it is simply the airline's pricing curve, and it is the single largest variable in a Delhi quote.

Visas and positioning

If the routing to India needs a visthe courier does not hold, either we assign a courier who does or we position one, and a global network exists precisely so that the answer is usually the first option rather than the second.

Declared value and insurance

All-risk cover is priced on the declared value of the goods, and it is the number that matters, airline liability under the Montreal Convention is a fraction of what most courier consignments are worth. Understating the value to save a little on cover is a false economy the first time anything goes wrong.

Distance and sector count

A direct flight to Delhi is one ticket and one risk. A two-sector routing is cheaper on paper and more expensive in practice, because every connection is a chance to lose the consignment's schedule. We quote the routing we would actually fly, not the cheapest one that technically arrives.

Every quote we send is fixed before departure and contains the flight, the courier's fee, transfers and, where an overnight cannot be avoided, the hotel. The things that can change it afterwards are the things you control: a change of destination, a change of goods, or a delay at your end that costs the booked flight. Duty and tax in India sit with the consignee unless we have agreed otherwise in writing.

Dubai skyline at dusk — He who does not know his past cannot make the best of his present and future, for it is from the past that we learn.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan

What can go wrong on a Delhi assignment, and what we do about it

Every operator has these problems. The difference is whether the answer was decided in advance or invented at the counter. This is our answer to each of them, written down before you need it.

The declared value is challenged

It happens, and it is survivable when the invoice is realistic and consistent with the goods. It is not survivable when someone wrote a convenient number. We check this before departure precisely because there is no way to fix it afterwards.

The consignee is unreachable

We confirm the receiving party and a working phone number before the courier departs, and we agree a fallback in Delhi, a second authorised person, or a secure hold, so that a delivery does not fail because someone went into a meeting.

The goods turn out to be regulated

Found before departure, this is a repack or a permit. Found at security, it is a lost flight and sometimes a confiscation. It is the reason we ask uncomfortable questions about contents at the very beginning instead of taking a booking politely.

The courier is refused boarding

Almost always a document problem: a passport too close to expiry, a missing transit visa, a name on the ticket that does not match the passport. Every one of those is checked at assignment, and it is checked again before the courier leaves for the airport.

Weather or airspace closes the route

Force majeure does not disappear because a shipment is urgent. What we do is re-plan around it, a different hub, a different carrier, occasionally a different UAE airport, and tell you what the new arrival time is rather than letting you discover it.

The consignment is larger than described

Measured at collection, not at the gate. If it will not fit a locker we buy a seat for it there and then and tell you the revised number before the courier moves, rather than improvising at check-in.

How jobs like this actually run

Illustrative cases, patterns from daily OBC work, details generalised for client confidentiality.

SemiconductorSHJ → TPE

A reticle case that had to stay upright, in sight, in the cabin.

Cleanroom pickup11:20

Via a same-day connection14:45

Fab dock06:50 +1

✓ Line stoppage avoided.

EventsLAS → RUH

A show-control console after a failure during load-in.

Vendor pickup20:10

Two-leg routing23:30

Front of house07:45 +2

✓ Doors opened on time.

FashionMXP → DXB

Runway samples finished in Milan on Thursday, the show was Saturday.

Atelier pickup18:00

Morning departure09:35 +1

Backstage19:20 +1

✓ Every look on the rail before the rehearsal.

Times are typical for these lanes; every job gets its own named flight and timeline before you confirm.

How it moves

A seat of its own, never out of sight

The case flies belted in the cabin next to the courier, never checked in.

Join the OBC network, become an on board courier

Every route on this site runs because somebody was willing to get on the plane with it. We are recruiting vetted couriers worldwide: we book and pay the flight, cover transfers and a hotel where an overnight is needed, and pay a fee for every completed assignment, stated in the offer before you accept it. You decide when you are available.

Flights paid
Fee per assignment
Assignments worldwide
You choose your dates
Training in our Academy

Join the OBC network now → See the open position What does an OBC earn?

Estimate your price, live, before you talk to anyone

An indicative calculation on the OBC-One pattern: airline seat, courier duty, hotel where the routing needs one, transfers and handling. Pick any of the airports we serve, adjust the settings, the breakdown updates as you go. Nothing here is a binding price; the airline fare on the day decides the final number.

Departure hub

Destination airport

What is travelling? Weight: 5 kg More than 23 kg, second courier Service

How urgent?

Indicative total ,

Happy with the estimate? Send it, done.

This sends exactly what you configured above, nothing to retype, no commitment. Indicative figures only; a person confirms the real fare and timing.

Aircraft wing above the clouds — From this tarmac a courier can reach six continents before tomorrow night.
The geography that built Dubai

Get a quote for this route

Tell us what has to move and where it has to be. You get a fixed price and a departure time back, usually within 15 minutes, day or night.

Request a quote

Answered by a person, 24/7. No commitment. One form, one reply.

Origin airport

Destination airport

Shipment type

Ready date & time

Who is booking

Company

What does the company do?

Your name

Phone

Email address

What is in the consignment?

Request received. We reply by email from bookings [at] onboardcourier [dot] ae, usually within 15 minutes.

Confidential · no commitment · 24/7 availability

I need to send something

Book hand-carry delivery from the UAE to anywhere in the world, and follow it in real time. Same-day departure available.

Book a shipment → Client login

I want to fly as a courier

We pay the ticket and a fee per completed assignment. You choose when you are available.

Apply as an OBC → See the open position

Where to go from here

Hand carry on Air India is one chapter of a larger network. OnBoard Courier moves time-critical consignments with vetted on-board couriers departing 24/7 from all seven UAE airports to 584 destinations across 219 countries. Choose the service that fits, classic hand-carry, AOG for grounded aircraft, medical and pharma, next flight out or high-value goods, then check entry requirements and customs by country and how an assignment actually runs, minute by minute.

Prefer to compare first? Read when a seat beats a parcel network, browse the industries we move for or scan the airlines the couriers the desk places fly with. If you travel often yourself, flying as an OnBoard Courier pays per completed assignment. For anything urgent, the fastest route is the quote form above, answered by a person, day or night.

One person beats a parcel networkon Air India

Tell us what has to fly. We answer with a flight and a price.

Operational route facts

How the flying actually works

Alternative gateways nearby

Three departure boards, one desk: Emirates, flydubai and Etihad for on Air India

The night bank out of Terminal 3

The short sectors, several times a day

Abu Dhabi as the second runway

on Air India: every hour it waits is an hour it is not moving.

Air India in the network the desk measures

The sectors that carry the AI code most often

Where AI meets the UAE gateways

Night restrictions on the airports the AI code uses

Published lanes that carry the AI code

The countries the AI code opens

Where to go next on the AI network

Where Air India fits in an OBC routing

Cabin baggage reality

Connections

How we book

Customs is separate

Why frequency matters

Independence

Destinations and markets this carrier serves for us

On board courier vs air cargo

✓ On board courier

✕ Air cargo & express freight

Questions about flying Air India

01Are you an agent or partner of Air India?

02Will my consignment definitely fly Air India?

03How much can a courier carry on Air India?

04Can I fly as a courier on Air India?

Need a routing that uses Air India?

Why a courier on Air India rather than a cargo booking

How an assignment routed over Delhi runs

You tell us what it is

We screen it and price it

A named courier is assigned and booked

Collection, sealing and documentation

The consignment stays in the cabin

Customs, then a signature

The paperwork that decides how fast Delhi goes

Certificates and permits

Tariff classification

Named consignee with authority

Legalisation and attestation

Proforma invoice for non-sales

Duty, tax and who pays it

What a Delhi courier actually costs, and why

What is always included

The ground legs at both ends

How much notice you give us

Visas and positioning

Declared value and insurance

Distance and sector count

What can go wrong on a Delhi assignment, and what we do about it

The declared value is challenged

The consignee is unreachable

The goods turn out to be regulated

The courier is refused boarding

Weather or airspace closes the route

The consignment is larger than described

More questions about carrying a consignment on Air India

01Can you collect outside the UAE?

02Do you handle customs at Delhi (DEL)?

03Are you an airline?

04Can a courier carry more than one consignment?

05Does the consignment ever go into the hold?

06How is delivery proven?

07How quickly can a courier leave for Delhi?

08What happens if the flight is cancelled?

How jobs like this actually run

A seat of its own, never out of sight

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