Whereas nothing has been formally introduced, it could seem that Air India is planning on considerably increasing its service to the USA within the close to future.
Air India hints at three new US routes
A couple of week in the past, there began to be rumors that Air India would launch new routes to the USA, as a Twitter/X consumer posted some screenshots with schedule filings for routes to new US markets.
That now appears nearer to turning into a actuality. As flagged by @IshrionA, Air India has simply up to date its route map so as to add three new locations in the USA. Particularly, the airline appears to be planning to fly from Delhi (DEL) to:
- Dallas (DFW), which might be a flight of 8,186 miles
- Los Angeles (LAX), which might be a flight of 8,013 miles
- Seattle (SEA), which might be a flight of seven,061 miles
Actual particulars stay to be seen, together with when the service will launch, and the way continuously the flights will function. Nevertheless, between the leaked schedule submitting and Air India including these locations to its official route map (which solely exhibits locations served straight by the airline), this appears extremely more likely to occur.
Solely time will inform what plane Air India will use for these routes. Whereas Air India has a bunch of Airbus A350s on order, I think about within the close to future the airline is probably going to make use of Boeing 777s, both these which were within the service’s fleet for a very long time, or a number of the leased plane, that are comprised of former Delta 777-200LRs, former Etihad 777-300ERs, and former Singapore Airways 777-300ERs.
These new routes would complement Air India’s present service to the USA, together with to Chicago (ORD), New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), San Francisco (SFO), and Washington (IAD). Air India additionally flies to Canada, with flights to Toronto (YYZ) and Vancouver (YVR).
This Air India growth makes a whole lot of sense
Air India has been privatized, and is within the means of reinventing itself. The airline is investing massively in modernizing its fleet and enhancing the passenger expertise. This contains ordering 470 new plane, introducing new cabins, retrofitting present plane, and fully rebranding.
India is a large aviation market, and for therefore lengthy, Air India has primarily handed the market to the Gulf carriers on the subject of providing high quality lengthy haul service. That’s lastly beginning to change.
It’s not shocking to see Air India now seeking to tremendously increase service to the USA, provided that it has an enormous aggressive benefit. Air India can use Russian airspace on flights to the USA, whereas US carriers can’t. Not solely does this considerably cut back journey time, however it makes routes attainable that US airways merely can’t serve as a consequence of vary limitations of present plane.
Clearly these three markets (and particularly Dallas and Seattle) are about serving the massive demand for journey to and from India from the area people, since Air India doesn’t have any main companions with connectivity there. The airline should not have any hassle filling these planes, given the amount of vacationers.
Curiously this isn’t the primary time that Air India has deliberate such service. In 2017, Air India’s CEO on the time introduced plans to launch Dallas and Los Angeles flights. Nevertheless, that by no means got here to fruition. Suffice it to say that the airline is now higher positioned to function this service, each when it comes to its new technique, plus its aggressive benefit.
Backside line
Whereas it hasn’t been formally introduced but by Air India, the whole lot is pointing towards the airline launching flights from Delhi to Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The airline has up to date its route map to replicate this, and we additionally just lately noticed a schedule submitting for a few of this service.
This may be some mighty spectacular growth on Air India’s half, so I can’t wait to see this formalized.
What do you make of Air India’s deliberate growth to the USA?
