At Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, Air India’s newly unveiled Maharaja Lounge at Terminal 3 is being positioned as much more than a refreshed waiting area. It is a flagship project in the Tata-owned carrier’s multi year transformation, aimed at redefining what a transit experience through India’s busiest hub can feel like for premium travelers. With a large scale footprint, a new design language rooted in contemporary Indian aesthetics, and a service philosophy that blends hospitality and efficiency, the lounge marks a shift in how the airline wants to present itself to the world.
A Flagship Lounge at the Heart of Air India’s Rebirth
The Maharaja Lounge at Delhi’s Terminal 3 international pier is the first true flagship lounge of the new Air India. Spanning around 16,000 square feet and designed to host roughly 300 guests, it signals a decisive move away from the modest, utilitarian facilities that previously served the airline’s premium passengers in the capital. The lounge will begin welcoming guests from February 16, 2026, initially targeting Business and First Class flyers, elite Maharaja Club members, and eligible Star Alliance customers.
This opening follows a year long closure and complete reimagining of Air India’s earlier international lounge at T3, which was shut in April 2024 for a top to bottom rebuild. At the time, passengers were temporarily redirected to a partner facility while construction progressed behind the scenes. The result of that effort is now a dedicated Air India branded space that is intended to function as a physical embodiment of the carrier’s broader reboot: globally competitive, unapologetically Indian, and focused on consistency in service.
For India’s flag carrier, the lounge has strategic importance beyond its square footage. Delhi serves as Air India’s primary international hub, a gateway linking key long haul markets in North America, Europe, Australia, and East Asia with destinations across the subcontinent. By anchoring its premium experience at this node, the airline is investing in a critical touchpoint that influences how transit passengers perceive not only the journey but the country itself.
Design Language: Modern India Meets the Maharaja Legacy
The look and feel of the Maharaja Lounge has been shaped by global hospitality design studio Hirsch Bedner Associates, a firm that has worked on high end hotels and resorts worldwide and was specifically tasked with redefining Air India’s lounge experience in both Delhi and New York. Their brief was to reinterpret the airline’s storied Maharaja icon and Indian design cues in a way that feels luxurious, contemporary, and globally relevant, without turning the space into a themed pastiche.
The result is an interior scheme that leans into warm, layered materials, curated Indian artwork, and subtle motifs rather than overt symbolism. Rich textiles and patterned screens reference traditional crafts, while the lighting design focuses on creating softer, more residential style pockets within the open plan. Guests arriving from overnight flights will find muted tones and ambient illumination that are closer to a boutique hotel lobby than a conventional airport lounge.
Signature zones underscore this blend of heritage and modernity. The Crystal Bar takes its name from its jewel like finishes and draws on Indian patterns in its detailing, while the Aviators Bar pays homage to J. R. D. Tata’s pioneering 1932 flight that laid the foundation for the airline. Elsewhere, spaces such as the Globe Trotters Study and the Serenity Area are designed to appeal to different traveler archetypes, from business passengers needing to prepare for meetings to leisure guests looking for quiet rest between connections.
Zoned for Every Type of Transit: From Work Pods to Sleep Suites
One of the most notable aspects of the Maharaja Lounge is its zoning strategy. Rather than a single, open hall with common seating, the lounge is carved into distinct environments that acknowledge how varied the needs of premium flyers can be during transit. In the Business Class section, a mix of communal tables, semi enclosed booths, and more traditional armchair clusters allows guests to choose the level of privacy and interaction they prefer.
For those who need to work, the Globe Trotters Study functions almost like a co working enclave, with workstations, power access at every seat, and quieter acoustics. Nearby, more casual seating is arranged for informal conversations or solo device time. On the opposite side of the spectrum, a dedicated Serenity Area offers recliner style seating and a calmer ambiance for rest, especially useful for travelers facing long layovers or red eye connections.
The First Class section goes a step further, with a more exclusive footprint and lounge like layouts that face panoramic views of the runway. Here, the focus is on unhurried comfort, from a sleep suite designed for deeper rest to more personalized table side service. The segmentation between Business and First is deliberate: while the overall design language is cohesive, the layout and staffing are calibrated to reflect the greater degree of privacy and discretion expected at the top tier.
Culinary Focus: Elevating Indian Hospitality Through Food and Drink
As with many of the world’s most admired airline lounges, culinary quality lies at the heart of Air India’s upgraded concept. At the Maharaja Lounge, food is not treated as a simple buffet add on; instead, the carrier is emphasizing a restaurant like experience that showcases both Indian flavors and global familiarity. A central dining area provides a range of hot and cold dishes, with live cooking stations that rotate menus based on time of day and seasonal ingredients.
Indian cuisine holds pride of place, with regional specialties intended to appeal both to domestic travelers craving comfort flavors and to international visitors keen to sample local dishes in a controlled, high quality setting. Alongside this, an array of international options ensures that guests in transit from, say, North America to Southeast Asia can find something familiar if they prefer lighter or Western style meals between flights.
Beverage programming is another differentiator. A dedicated tea program pays tribute to India’s long association with tea culture, offering curated blends and preparation styles that go beyond a standard self service urn. The Beverage on Wheels service, delivered via a trolley that circulates through the lounge, brings barista made coffee, teas, and light bites directly to guests at their seats, minimizing the need to queue and mirroring the personalized service offered in upscale hotels.
Technology, Comfort, and the Practicalities of Transit
Beneath the design flourishes and culinary theater, the Maharaja Lounge has been planned as a high functioning transit hub for modern travelers. Power outlets and USB charging are integrated into the majority of seats, reflecting the reality that many guests arrive with multiple devices in need of a top up. Wi Fi provisioning is tuned to handle the surge loads of peak departure banks, when swaths of long haul flights depart within tight windows and hundreds of guests may be streaming, downloading, or on video calls.
Shower suites, upgraded washrooms, and well signposted storage areas speak to the practicalities of long haul journey planning. For a passenger arriving on a late night flight from Europe and continuing onward to Australia, the ability to freshen up, change clothes, and securely store carry on bags before a connecting sector can make the difference between an exhausting slog and a manageable, even pleasant, transit.
Operationally, the lounge is also a test bed for Air India’s broader customer experience ambitions. Staffing levels, training modules, and service flows have been designed to reduce waiting times at check in counters, improve table clearing speeds, and increase proactive guest engagement. The airline’s management has signaled that learnings from Delhi will feed into future lounges planned across India and key international stations, in line with a multi hub growth strategy and fleet modernization anchored by new wide body aircraft.
Part of a Larger Airport and Airline Transformation Story
The unveiling of the Maharaja Lounge comes amid a wider reconfiguration of Delhi airport and Air India’s own operations. Over the last two years, Delhi International Airport has expanded and upgraded terminals to handle rising passenger volumes, with Terminal 2 emerging as an upgraded domestic hub and Terminal 3 increasingly oriented toward international operations and high volume transfer flows. As part of this reshuffle, Air India and Air India Express have shifted domestic services out of T3, freeing capacity for international growth and improving the separation between domestic and overseas traffic.
From the airline’s perspective, the lounge is one pillar in a matrix of improvements that include cabin refurbishments, the introduction of new aircraft such as the Airbus A350 on flagship routes, updated inflight entertainment, and a more consistent Premium Economy product. In this context, the lounge acts as a ground based extension of the new onboard experience, ensuring that a traveler flying, for example, from New York to Delhi in the latest business class cabin finds a correspondingly updated standard as soon as they step off the aircraft.
This holistic approach is particularly important given the competitive landscape. Rival Gulf and Asian carriers have long used lounge design and premium ground services as brand showcases, reinforcing reputations for high service standards. For Air India, which is now under private ownership and engaged in a turnaround that spans network planning, fleet, and culture, the Maharaja Lounge represents a visible, tangible signal that the airline intends to compete in that arena rather than cede it.
Redefining the Indian Transit Experience for Global Travelers
Beyond the optics of a gleaming new facility, the Maharaja Lounge has a more subtle role to play in reframing the narrative of transiting through India. Historically, some international travelers have viewed Indian hubs as functional but crowded and inconsistent. By elevating the experience at Delhi for high yielding premium and connecting traffic, Air India and the airport operator are working to demonstrate that an India based transit can be as smooth and aspirational as a stopover in the Gulf or Southeast Asia.
The space also doubles as a soft power platform. Through its art program, tea service, curated menus, and design, the lounge introduces visitors to slices of Indian culture in a contemporary, less stereotyped way. Instead of heavy motifs or museum like displays, the focus is on small, discoverable details: a piece of commissioned artwork, a regional dessert, a crafted postcard bearing the Maharaja design that guests can take home as a keepsake. These touches create memory anchors that extend beyond the flight itself.
For Indian travelers, the transformation carries a different but equally important message. It speaks to an airline and an airport system that are willing to invest domestically in standards that match or even exceed what is available abroad. For a business traveler based in Bengaluru or Mumbai who routinely connects through Delhi on long haul missions, knowing that the transit experience includes a calm, well run lounge becomes a factor in loyalty and airline choice.
What Passengers Can Expect Next
As the Maharaja Lounge begins operations from mid February 2026, Air India is expected to phase in access for eligible categories in line with flight schedules and staffing readiness. Business and First Class passengers on international departures from Delhi, along with Gold and Platinum members of the airline’s loyalty program and qualifying Star Alliance status holders, will form the initial core of users. Over time, usage patterns will inform refinements in layout, menu rotations, and service deployment during peak departure waves.
The airline has also indicated that the Delhi flagship is only the first in a series of upgraded lounges planned across its network, including at key international gateways where Air India is growing its presence with new aircraft and additional frequencies. Lessons learned in Delhi about crowd management, design durability, and guest expectations will likely influence how those future spaces are conceived and operated.
For now, though, the Maharaja Lounge stands as a clear marker of intent. In transforming its flagship space at Delhi airport from a modest, under equipped facility into a purpose built flagship, Air India is sending a message to its most discerning customers: the transit experience in India is being rewritten, and the journey between flights is once again a central part of the story.