Air India has announced that it is expanding its presence in San Francisco in the United States and in London and Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
San Francisco
Starting 15th December 2022, Air India will operate 3-flights-a-week between Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and San Francisco International Airport with the following schedule:
- Mumbai-San Francisco
- Departure time: 14:30
- Arrival time: 17:00
- Flight time: 16 hours
- Flight number: AI179
- Frequency: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
- San Francisco-Mumbai
- Departure time: 21:00
- Arrival time: 03:40 (+2 days)
- Flight time: 17 hours and 10 minutes
- Flight number: AI180
- Frequency: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
As of 2nd December 2022, the airline will operate 3-flights-a-week between Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and San Francisco International Airport with the following schedule:
- Bengaluru-San Francisco
- Departure time: 14:20
- Arrival time: 17:00
- Flight time: 16 hours and 10 minutes
- Flight number: AI175
- Frequency: Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays
- San Francisco-Bengaluru
- Departure time: 21:00
- Arrival time: 04:25
- Flight time: 17 hours and 55 minutes
- Flight number: AI176
- Frequency: Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays
These flights will be operated by Boeing B777-200LR (Long Range) aircraft.
Air India already operates 10-flights-a-week between Delhi and San Francisco. With the launch of these two routes, Air India will operate a total of 16-weekly flights between India and San Francisco, making it the largest ever schedule for Air India in San Francisco.
London
Air India will operate 9-additional-flights-a-week to London Heathrow from October 2022.
Flights between Delhi and London will be increased from 11-weekly flights to 14-weekly flights from 30th October 2022 while flights between Mumbai and London will be increased from 7-weekly flights to 12-weekly flights from the same date. Flights between Ahmedabad and London will be increased from 3-weekly flights to 4-weekly flights from 30th October 2022.
Air India will continue to operate the same number of flights from Kochi, Amritsar, Goa and Hyderabad to London as it does presently.
Birmingham
Air India will launch flights between Delhi and Birmingham which will run 3-times-a-week. Of these 3-weekly flights, 2-weekly flights will be launched on 2nd October 2022 while an additional frequency will be added on 16th November 2022.
At the same time, Amritsar-Birmingham flights will be increased from once-weekly to 3-weekly flights. Twice-weekly flights will be operated from 3rd October 2022 while an additional frequency will be added on 17th November 2022.
As Air India reinvents itself under the Vihaan.AI transformation programme, adding frequency and improving connectivity from major Indian cities to more international destinations is a significant focus. This sizeable frequency increase to the US and the UK, as well as the addition of new city pairs and improved aircraft cabin interiors, comes just 10 months after Air India’s acquisition by the Tata Group. It is a clear signal of our intent, and an early step towards a much bigger aspiration.
said Campbell Wilson, CEO and MD, Air India.
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International expansion has begun
As part of the transformation plan “Vihaan.AI” announced by Air India a few days ago, it said that it will look at adding more and more international flights, thus expanding its international presence.
Air India’s current schedule of 34-flights-a-week to the United Kingdom will now go up to 48-flights-a-week while its U.S. schedule will go from current 34-flights-a-week to 40-flights-a-week with these new flights.
Going all-in in India-U.S. market
As for United States, Air India is clearly taking advantage of the current circumstances.
Russian airspace is closed to most of the international airlines, but not to Air India. The airline is currently operating the shortest nonstop flights between India and the United States, as it has the permission to use the Russian airspace.
United Airlines, which was the largest U.S. airline operating between India and the US prior to the Russian airspace sanctions, is currently operating only two routes to India (Newark-Delhi and Chicago-Delhi). It had to suspend Newark-Mumbai and San Francisco-Delhi in May 2022 due to Russian airspace sanctions.
Air India is taking a full advantage of this situation by augmenting its U.S. network. The airline is also looking beyond Delhi for its international long-haul network.
Mumbai has always lagged behind in terms of the number of the flights to the United States, with only flights to the New York area. Air India will be the first airline to operate flights between Mumbai and San Francisco, thus tapping into a totally new market.
On the other hand, Air India has in the past operated Bengaluru-San Francisco flights. It is making a comeback on this route, this time with a increased 3-weekly frequency. United’s Bengaluru-San Francisco and American Airlines’ Bengaluru-Seattle flight plans are on a hold for now due to the closure of Russian airspace and unavailability of long-haul aircraft. Because of these reasons, this seems the perfect time to resume Bengaluru-San Francisco route.
One question that comes to my mind is that will Air India use its newly-leased B777-200LRs on flights to San Francisco from Mumbai and Bengaluru? The carrier will start receiving its leased B777s from December and that coincides with the launch of these flights.
Will all London flights operate to London Heathrow or will some flights be shifted to London Stansted?
Air India says that it will operate a total of 48-flights-a-week between India and London Heathrow once the above mentioned frequencies are added. Now the question that remains to be answered is that does Air India have that many slots at London Heathrow that it can accommodate all these flights or will some of these flights be shifted to London Stansted? Now you may ask why London Stansted? The reason for this is that Air India operated flights to London Stansted in the past so it becomes easy for the airline to shift some of its flights to Stansted.
This all remains to be seen. Leaving all these things aside, it’s great to see Air India upping its game in the international market by capturing the perfect opportunity that it has now.
Meanwhile, Air India recently announced that it is leading 30 aircraft including 5 Boeing B777-200LRs.
Featured image by Airliners.net
What do you think of Air India’s expansion in San Francisco, London and Birmingham markets? Let me know in the comments section below.
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