MUMBAI- Tata-owned Air India (AI) is set to announce new US destinations almost after 10 years as it announced its last one in 2015. Well, the airline will likely operate the new routes using Boeing 777 and later with its flagship Airbus A350s.
Currently, the Gurugram-based carrier serves five cities in the United States, which includes Chicago O’hare (ORD), Newark (EWR), New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO) and Washington Dulles (IAD).
Air India New US Destinations
According to FE Sources, Air India will operate new flights to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Texas (one of the busiest airports in the world) and Los Angeles (LAX), California.
Air India may operate these routes from Delhi International Airport (DEL), as it is a major hub for airline. So let’s see how long these flights and how much time it will take and whether is there any competition on these routes.
As seen above, the DEL-DFW route will be flown over Russian Airspace and through the Atlantic. While DEL-LAX will be operated over the Pacific Ocean.
- DEL-DFW route is 13,173 km apart and is likely to take more than 15 hours to complete the journey.
- On the other hand, DEL-LAX is 12,896 km and will take a somewhat similar time.
According to our research and cirium data, these new routes will be the third and fourth longest non-stop routes from India after Mumbai (BOM)-San Francisco (SFO) and Bengaluru (BLR)-SFO.
Earlier this year, one frequent flyer of Air India filed a petition to start direct flights between Dallas and Hyderabad (HYD). Petition revealed that out of the 400K Indians residing in DFW, a substantial portion, approximately 50-60%, are Telugu-speaking individuals. The petition has received more than five thousand signatures.
As of July 2024, there are no Indian or US carriers that fly non-stop between these routes. So Air India will have exclusivity as well as a monopoly over these destinations.
Why Not Seattle?
Aviation A2Z earlier reported that Air India might start serving Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle with A350 and 777 in late 2024. Out of these FE sources have confirmed DFW and LAX. Well, Seattle-Tacoma (SEA) might be on hold or will be announced later as Air India needs to check the feasibility of its new routes and make it sustainable to operate.
Currently, Air India operates 120 weekly flights between India and the United States. This data also includes return flights.
Indian full-service carrier’s last announcement for the newest US route came in 2015 for San Francisco. Since then it has not added any new US destinations but has strengthened its operations by adding more flights.
Sources told FE that,
Plans are being prepared to expand our services to LA and Dallas. There is a large Indian diaspora in the vicinity of these two megacities and no direct flight connections from there to India
FE Sources
Furthermore, these new destinations will initially be served by the Boeing 777 fleet by the fourth quarter of this year. I think the move to operate 777 instead of A350 is possibly due to better fleet rotation. The 777 aircraft that are serving Europe will be freed for new routes and A350 will serve them.
So at last to conclude, so far Dallas and Los Angeles are confirmed and will be announced shortly. Air India will serve these new destinations with old planes initially. Later, Air India will announce more destinations in North America including Seattle.
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