Earlier this week, I mentioned that Air India was looking at making the longest flight in the world, while making the BLR-SFO flight on their Boeing 777 LRs. That did not work out after all, and Air India has changed their mind to announce a Delhi – San Francisco flight which will operate 3 times a week.
Air India took to Twitter to announce the flight, while deleting their earlier statement about Bangalore – San Francisco.
As per Air India, passengers can have dinner in Delhi and breakfast in San Francisco. While there is no update on the schedules of Air India website, it looks like this will be a 17-hour long flight.
The outgoing flight from Delhi will operate on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and will offer a three class configuration with 8 seats in F, 35 seats in J and 195 seats in Y.
Clearly, this one is going to be a new long range addition to the Star Alliance flights between the two continents, adding to their existing flights between United and Air India.
Do you think this flight is a good idea? Or another way that Air India plans to lose money?
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From what I understand there there is a bigger market than the IT guys of Hyd or Blr in Delhi. An associate who has traveled in that region extensively suggested doing a Amritsar -SFO would also make sense considering how many people from that part travel on that sector.
almost all people present in SAP centre yesterday never really fly Air India Indian airlines they prefer private airlines. So PM Modi’s ‘good news’ didnt really cheer them much!
For now, AI’s Non stop flight should have BOM-DEL-SFO route as so many people from Mumbai would benefit from it.
And as bd says in his comment below, they need to make lounges and service more perfect to really attract customers. Still 17 hrs no headache of stopovers is a good option. just put a “DO NOT DISTURB” sign on your forehead and straight go to sleep as soon as plane takes off! Forget aminities and service :v :v
Still as of Monday PM West Coast time, no official mention on the SFO airport website.
I personally think there is a slight error in the timings: the AI folks mistakenly used Pacific Daylight Savings Time rather than Pacific Standard Time in their calculations. With the present listed schedule, the flight duration for SFO–>DEL (16:05) is slightly less than for DEL–>SFO (16:45).
This does not make sense, since a simple search for one-stop options reveals that the fastest option [minus layover time] for DEL–>SFO is ALWAYS going to be shorter in duration than the fastest option [minus layover time] for SFO–>DEL.
Now, if we take into account this slight error and correct it, we get SFO–>DEL @17:05, and DEL–>SFO @15:45. Which makes far greater sense.
The question to ask is do you want to fly on Air India …. for 17 hours!!!!
I flew from New York to Delhi on Air India’s business class a few years ago and never again will I make that mistake. Air India’s lounge at JFK was disgusting. The seats had stains on them and the food was obviously from the local Indian take-out. Air France’s premium economy was way better than Air India’s business class. The seats were Boeing’s low-end option. The amenity kit offered was basic and didn’t wasn’t branded. I know in India people like to fawn over master sahib, but it was ridiculous when every flight attendant assigned to the business section would come over within minutes of each other to check on you and would ask the same question. At first it was endearing but towards the end you realized they were just disorganized and you just wanted to be left alone. While the food was good, the place did stink of curry. They really should carry a canister of Febreze (Ambi Pur). I think if I had to fly from SFO to DEL I would take a break in HKG on Cathay Pacific or any other airline for that matter. Convenience isn’t worth the Air India experience.
Does BOM-SFO makes more sense?
Air India does not make sense
That I agree! 😀 almost all people present in SAP centre yesterday never really fly Air India Indian airlines they prefer private airlines. So PM Modi’s ‘good news’ didnt really cheer them much!
For now, AI’s Non stop flight should have BOM-DEL-SFO route as so many people from Mumbai would benefit from it.
And as bd says in his comment below, they need to make lounges and service more perfect to really attract customers. Still 17 hrs no headache of stopovers is a good option. just put a “DO NOT DISTURB” sign on your forehead and straight go to sleep as soon as plane takes off! Forget aminities and service :v :v
I wonder what happened to the plan to reconfigure these planes with more economy seats..
I think BLR-SFO would have made a lot more sense and link the two Silicon Valley. Now, its similar whether you transit in DEL or SIN or HKG
So another 100cr per year down the drain!
AI has never been able to work out any of its long haul profitably.
If this is targeted at the Indian populace, they would only care about Economy at the equivalent price point of say Emirates, which will not be profitable.
Business or First class passengers will prefer a one stop on Cathay/ SQ/KE which are miles better. Here too, AI won’t be able to charge a premium for the non-stop service as they will have to price lower than the mentioned airlines.
So the taxpayers will be funding another hole in AI’s balance sheet
First flight is on December 2. PM just announced in his California speech 😛
Fully agree with Vishal. The premium economy would be a welcome step. The fares would be interesting as some of the Chinese airlines fly a return trip within Rs 40000 on this sector and aren’t shabby by any standards.
Now this would be a great route to put on some of those premium economy seats Air India has been talking about off-late. Unsure about the 8 seater first class cabin.