Air India Express

If you spot at the Gulf, you cannot get around Air India Express: in Dubai, Sharjah or Abu Dhabi, the orange-and-turquoise 737 taxis to the gate several times a day, packed with people on their way to Kerala, Mumbai or Delhi. Behind the young look is an airline with twenty years of history, a merger with the former AirAsia India and a fast-growing fleet of Boeing 737-8s. Here you learn how to identify Air India Express with confidence – and which details make a sighting really interesting.

Air India Express at a glance

Air India Express is the low-cost carrier of the Air India Group. It was founded in 2005 as a subsidiary of what was then still state-owned Air India; before that, the company operated under the name Air India Charters Limited. The mission was clear from the start: inexpensive connections between India – especially the south of the country – and the Gulf states, where millions of Indian workers live. Delhi, Mumbai and Singapore joined the network as early as October 2005.

The big turning point came with the change of ownership. In October 2021, the Tata Group won the bid for Air India and Air India Express, and the takeover was completed in January 2022. Since then, the group has been restructuring its airlines: Air India takes on long-haul and premium traffic, while Air India Express becomes the group’s single low-cost brand. That also included the merger with AIX Connect, the former AirAsia India.

One number shows how strongly the airline has grown since: when Tata came on board, the fleet consisted of 26 Boeing 737 Next Generations and 28 Airbus A320s (including AirAsia India). In March 2025, Air India Express celebrated its 100th aircraft in Bengaluru – a Boeing 737-8. Today the airline connects numerous cities in India with destinations in the Gulf and Southeast Asia.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code IX: appears in the flight number, on display boards and on the ticket.
• ICAO code AXB: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on most flight trackers.
• Callsign EXPRESS INDIA: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

One stumbling block for logbooks is the legacy codes of the merger partner. AirAsia India – later AIX Connect – flew under IATA I5 and ICAO IAD with the callsign “RED KNIGHT.” If you sort older photos of the Airbus jets, you therefore find them under a different operator than today, even though the aircraft and registrations stayed the same.

Two airlines, one brand: the merger with AIX Connect

Today’s Air India Express is the result of a merger. AirAsia India was created in 2013 as a joint venture between Tata Sons and Malaysia’s AirAsia and began flight operations in 2014 – based in Bengaluru and with an all-Airbus fleet. Tata bought out all the AirAsia shares by November 2022, and the renaming to AIX Connect followed in late 2022.

After that, the aircraft were gradually moved into Air India Express’s flight operations. According to the group, the merger was completed on October 1, 2024. For spotters, that has a visible consequence: the airline has flown two manufacturer families ever since.

Origin	Types	Former code	Spotter tip
Old Air India Express	Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-8	IX / AXB	The historic backbone, Gulf traffic from Kerala
AIX Connect (ex AirAsia India)	Airbus A320, A320neo	I5 / IAD	Came with the merger; older photos still show red AirAsia colors
New arrivals since 2022	Boeing 737-8, Airbus A321neo	IX / AXB	737-8 as the growth type, A321neo in service since 2025

The fleet: 737-8 as the backbone

Exact fleet numbers vary by source and month, because new aircraft keep arriving and old ones leave. As of 2026, the fleet comprises just over 100 aircraft. The approximate breakdown according to publicly available fleet overviews:

Type	Share (as of 2026, rounded)	Spotter tip
Boeing 737-8 (737 MAX 8)	just over 50	Largest group, varying cabin layouts
Boeing 737-800	around 25	Older Next Generation, being replaced gradually
Airbus A320 (ceo)	around 10	From the AirAsia India fleet, leaving the fleet
Airbus A320neo	around 12	Also ex-AirAsia India or Air India
Airbus A321neo	a few	In service since April 2025, longest type in the fleet

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 – officially the 737-8 at Boeing – is the growth type. One peculiarity spotters love: some of the 737-8s arrived as so-called white tails, aircraft originally built for Chinese airlines but never delivered. Air India Express took them over with the cabin already installed. That is why the seat layouts differ within the 737-8 fleet; according to ch-aviation, many of these aircraft had a small business cabin. In 2025, the airline announced it would convert these aircraft to all-economy; newly delivered 737-8s already come without a business cabin.

The Boeing 737-800 is the type Air India Express grew up with – the first brand-new aircraft, a 737-800, arrived in late 2006. On the Airbus side you find the Airbus A320, the A320neo and the A321neo. The manufacturers are Boeing and Airbus.

For the future, the group is clearly betting on Boeing at Air India Express: according to ch-aviation, numerous 737-8s and around 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10s are still outstanding from the Air India Group’s large order. The first-generation Airbus jets, by contrast, are becoming rarer.

737-8 or 737-800? How to tell them apart

In the new livery, both Boeing types look almost identical. A few details reveal the generation, though – more in the guide Telling apart the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX.

With the Airbus jets, the familiar game applies: the neo has much larger engines than the first-generation A320. How to separate ceo and neo reliably is shown in the article A320neo or ceo?. You recognize the A321neo by its much longer fuselage – more in Telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart.

How to recognize Air India Express

In October 2023, Air India Express unveiled a new look. The brand colors are called Express Orange and Express Turquoise, and the tail carries large-scale patterns inspired by traditional Indian textiles and folk art. On the apron, that looks much livelier than most low-cost liveries – and it is worth taking a closer look at the tails, because the patterns vary. Which building blocks make up a livery is explained in Livery design explained.

The old livery was mostly white with red lettering in English and Hindi, plus tails with motifs from Indian culture. Until all aircraft are repainted, you can run into both generations – the old look becomes a motif with an expiration date. How to classify transitional and mixed liveries after a merger is shown in Recognizing hybrid liveries. There are also individual special liveries, such as VT-BWI with the titles marking the 100th aircraft. How to find such aircraft deliberately is covered in the guide to special liveries.

On the tail, the VT registration reveals the Indian registry. How country prefixes and registrations are structured in general is explained in Understanding aircraft registrations.

Network and spotting opportunities

The core of the international network lies in the Gulf. Connections to the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states have been part of the business since the founding, complemented by destinations in Southeast Asia such as Singapore. In India the airline serves many large and mid-sized cities; Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai are considered the main bases, and it is also traditionally strong in Kerala.

For spotters from Europe, that means: you do not see Air India Express in Frankfurt or Munich, but while traveling. At Dubai Airport, IX shares the apron with Emirates and flydubai, in Sharjah with Air Arabia and at Abu Dhabi Airport with Air Arabia Abu Dhabi. Why the Gulf hubs are so big is explained in the business model of the Gulf airlines. At Singapore Changi Airport you meet the airline alongside Scoot. And at Delhi Airport, the orange-and-turquoise jets stand next to the rest of the Indian scene: IndiGo, Akasa Air and SpiceJet.

Accidents in the airline’s history

Two serious accidents shape the history of Air India Express, both involving a Boeing 737-800 coming from Dubai. In May 2010, Flight 812 overran the end of the runway on landing in Mangalore; 158 people lost their lives, eight survived. In August 2020, Flight 1344 skidded off the runway, which sits on a plateau, in heavy rain in Kozhikode and fell down a slope. 21 people died, including both pilots. Both airports are considered challenging because of their location on high plateaus.

Common mix-ups

• Equating Air India Express with Air India – same group, but separate codes (IX/AXB instead of AI/AIC) and a separate livery.
• Taking every Airbus for an Air India aircraft – Air India Express also flies A320s, A320neos and A321neos.
• Misattributing ex-AirAsia photos – before the merger, these jets flew under I5/IAD, not IX.
• Trying to recognize the 737-8 by its livery – both 737 generations wear the same colors; engines and winglets are what count.
• Logging old and new liveries as two airlines – white-and-red with a motif tail and orange-and-turquoise belong to the same airline.
• Mixing up IndiGo and Air India Express – IndiGo flies in indigo blue with an Airbus and ATR fleet, while IX mainly relies on the 737.

Conclusion

Air India Express has evolved from a niche carrier for Gulf commuters into the single low-cost brand of the Air India Group. For spotters it is more exciting than its image suggests: two manufacturer families, two generations of the 737, white-tail aircraft with quirky cabins, ex-AirAsia Airbuses and two liveries currently flying side by side. If you log type, registration and livery cleanly, you are documenting an airline in the middle of upheaval.