In April 2021, American Airlines announced that it would return to India with nonstop flights to New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Now the airline has expanded its service to New Delhi even before launch.
Starting 31st October 2021, American Airlines will fly between New York and the Indian capital. When the route was first announced back in April, it was supposed to operate daily between 17th November 2021 and 1st January 2021 and 3-times-a-week for the rest of the year. Well, that has now changed. Now, the airline will operate the New York-New Delhi route daily year-round.
The flight schedule is:
- New York-New Delhi
- Departure time: 20:10
- Arrival time: 19:30 (the next day)
- Flight time: 13 hours and 50 minutes
- Flight number: AA292
- Frequency: Daily
- New Delhi-New York
- Departure time: 23:55
- Arrival time: 06:30 (the next day)
- Flight time: 16 hours and 05 minutes
- Flight number: AA293
- Frequency: Daily
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These flights will be operated by a Boeing B777-200ER featuring a total of 273 seats, including 37 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 212 standard economy class seats. This route is being added thanks to the American and JetBlue strategic alliance in the Northeast. American is mainly expanding into long-haul market, JetBlue provides much of the regional feed for these flights.
American Airlines’ JFK arrival at 06:30 am will be extremely convenient for business travellers. United’s arrival in Newark has long been a favorite for business passengers since it gives ample time to prepare for work on the same day. While Air India’s 07:35 am JFK arrival is closer to American, the Oneworld alliance member’s could be a sweet spot for some.
American Airlines is joining a busy market. Presently, there are 3 flights between Delhi and New York. These include United’s daily nonstop to Newark, Air India’s daily nonstop to New York JFK and Air India’s 6-weekly nonstop to Newark. The addition of American will boost capacity and may even result in fares coming down due to the added competition.
This new route by American also breaks the Star Alliance monopoly on US-India flights as Air India and United both are Star Alliance members. In the future, Vistara might also be joining the New York market, further increasing competition and finally giving India much-needed direct capacity to the US.
American is also launching service to Bengaluru from Seattle. This route is scheduled to start from 30th October 2021 and will be run by a Boeing B787 Dreamliner. The flight schedule is:
- Seattle-Bengaluru
- Departure time: 17:55
- Arrival time: 23:05 (the next day)
- Flight time: 16 hours and 40 minutes
- Flight number: AA180
- Frequency: Daily
- Bengaluru-Seattle
- Departure time: 01:45
- Arrival time: 06:00
- Flight time: 16 hours and 45 minutes
- Flight number: AA181
- Frequency: Daily
United Airlines is also launching flights between San Francisco and Bengaluru. The launch has been postponed due to low demand between US and India due to the 2nd COVID-19 wave in the Asian country. Now, it is scheduled to start on 8th September 2021, according to Google Flights.
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What do you think of American Airlines boosting flights to New Delhi ahead of launch? What are your thoughts on American’s ambitious plans for India? Let me know in the comments section below.
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