Following the success of its non-stop flights to San Francisco, the national airline carrier is motivated to start more such flights between popular foreign destinations. Resuming flights to Africa after several years is also in the pipeline.
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"To Washington from 7th July; Stockholm from 15th August and Los Angeles from 1st September to be followed by Tel Aviv, Dallas and Nairobi sometime later during the year 2017 itself. Air India spreads its wings far and wide," said a Facebook post from AI chairman
So far, AI has only confirmed the date for flights to start on the Delhi-Washington route.
"There is huge demand for travel between India and the West Coast of US. We are looking at thrice a week non-stop between Delhi and Los Angeles to begin with. The plan for Stockholm is of a similar frequency and non-stop Washington service will also start as three times a week. Our non-stop product is being increasingly chosen by flyers as they want to travel direct (between India and US) and not one or two stops," a senior AI official told TNN.
As of now, AI flies daily flights to three US destinations. While travellers can go to Newark directly from Mumbai, flights to New York and Chicago can be boarded from Delhi. Other than this, there is a flight from Delhi to San Francisco six times a week.
The decision to start non-stop flights to US is also taken keeping in mind the rise in demand for such flights after Trump government disallowed passengers on Gulf carriers from carrying electronics bigger than a mobile phone on the aircraft.
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(Image source IHS Journalism Blog)