Air India launches nonstop flight to San Francisco from New Delhi

India’s national carrier Air India recently launched its nonstop flights to San Francisco from New Delhi. The flights started operating from December 3, 2015. The airline has now become the first carrier in India to offer direct air connectivity to the US West Coast. The travel time between the two destinations has now been reduced by nearly 6 hours.

Air India will be providing thrice weekly flights services on New Delhi-San Francisco route on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The flights will be conducted with the help of a Boeing 777-200LR aircraft with a three-cabin configuration – First Class, Business Class and Economy Class. The customers travelling in first class would be offered eight seats. Those booking business class tickets would be offered 35 seats, while the travelers in economy class would be offered 195 seats.

The new service has come as a boon for the Indian diaspora residing on the US West Coast. The flight will help them save a lot of travel time. The absence of nonstop service earlier compelled them to board flights to New Delhi from Chicago. The travel time earlier used to be of about 23 hours, which has now been significantly reduced and would be of just 17 hours. The direct flight has thus effectively curbed the travel time by 5-6 hours.

Media reports said that San Francisco International Airport handled a total of 47,074,162 passengers in 2014, of which 10,269,701 were international travelers.

Indian Prime Minister had announced during his visit to the US West Coast in September this year that the new service would be launched soon. Air India officials said that it was nearly a daunting task to start direct flights to San Francisco within two months of PM’s announcement, which could become possible only with the cooperation from U.S. officials.