Air-India to fly non-stop to New York from April

“We would start non-stop services between India and the US in April. Other details are still being worked out,” A. K. Mathur, Air-India head of North America operations told The Indian Express. Mathur said the non-stop service would begin following the delivery of the state-of-the-art B777-200 LR (Long Range) from February by Boeing.

Mathur said A-I was also looking at three other American cities — Washington D.C., Houston / Dallas and San Francisco — as part of its next phase of expansion plans in US. “These operations would be eventually daily,” he said, adding the exact date of launching these operations was yet to be decided based on the delivery of the planes.

With addition of these three cities and the non-stop flight, the number of A-I flights between US and India would double from 28 to 56 eventually. It is a long way from just 10 flights some three years ago. A-I is also planning to increase the frequency of its Toronto flight from the present five days a week to daily. In the next phase of expansion, A-I is looking to start its service to Vancouver, he said.

While Continental flies between Newark and New Delhi, American operates its services from Chicago to New Delhi. Delta recently announced that it would fly non-stop from New York to Mumbai from November. Though the two non-stop flights of Continental and American are said to be flying to full capacity, an economic analysis, experts feel, is yet to be done.

The duration of the non-stop flight, would be 13 to 14 hours, as against 17-18 hours with a stopover in Europe.