AI starts non-stop Delhi- San Francisco flight

Air India launched its non-stop flight from Delhi to San Francisco, the first direct flight between India and the US West coast, on Wednesday. The thrice weekly flight being operated by three class Boeing 777-200 LR will cover the distance in 17 hours. At present, Air India flies non-stop daily flights to Chicago, New York and Newark.

The direct flight will enable Air India to compete with Emirates and other Gulf airlines who have been taking away US-bound traffic from India. At present, Emirates has the highest market share on India-US routes (over 18 per cent) and between India and San Francisco (over 20 per cent). Passengers from India contribute to 30 per cent of all US traffic for Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways.

While reports quoting Air India executives said the flight was sold out for two months and had 90 per cent plus bookings, agents said tickets were easily available over the next few days, and on many dates second-lowest or even lowest fare slab was available for booking. The airline is offering higher incentives to sell business- and first-class seats.

"The response has been excellent. We have launched the flight at a short notice. The announcement was made in October. Air India had to convince the US customs and border patrol to make service available at time of aircraft arrival in San Francisco as their regular duties would begin a hour and half later (AI flight lands at 6 am). This is our first direct flight to the US West coast and we will have to convince the locals about our product," said an Air India source. "A majority of the residents on West coast have been flying Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific to India and we need to do increase marketing there."