Sheema Vohra, Managing Director – India, Brand U.S., stated, “We are delighted at the announcement of the new non-stop service from New Delhi to San Francisco by Air India”. In a statement, the airline said, “National carrier Air India announced that it will connect capital Delhi to Silicon Valley hub, San Francisco, with a non-stop B777-200LR flight from December 2, 2015”.
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The main tech centers of India – Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi – will now be directly connected to San Francisco, a link that Modi hopes will prove beneficial for Indians and members of the Indian Diaspora, who have moved to the United States to work at tech companies. Now there are no direct flights between India and northern California despite the area’s large Indian population, partly due to the success of the state’s Silicon Valley. TOI had reported last Monday that AI was planning this flight which will be announced when the PM is in west coast. Likewise, the return flight from San Francisco will provide onward connections to nine cities i.e. Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Bhubaneswar.
The 7,670-mile flight will run three times a week, on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and take about 16 hours. Air India already operates routes to New York, Newark and Chicago.
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The New Delhi-San Francisco service will be flown in a Boeing 777-200 LR (Long Range) plane. The return flight will have an early morning departure from San Francisco and arrive in Delhi in the afternoon. The fares for business and first class are yet to be put up on the Air India website.
