While nothing has been officially announced, it would appear that Air India is planning on significantly expanding its service to the United States in the near future.
In this post:
Air India hints at three new US routes
About a week ago, there started to be rumors that Air India would launch new routes to the United States, as a Twitter/X user posted some screenshots with schedule filings for routes to new US markets.
That now seems closer to becoming a reality. As flagged by @IshrionA, Air India has just updated its route map to add three new destinations in the United States. Specifically, the airline seems to be planning to fly from Delhi (DEL) to:
- Dallas (DFW), which would be a flight of 8,186 miles
- Los Angeles (LAX), which would be a flight of 8,013 miles
- Seattle (SEA), which would be a flight of 7,061 miles
Exact details remain to be seen, including when the service will launch, and how frequently the flights will operate. However, between the leaked schedule filing and Air India adding these destinations to its official route map (which only shows destinations served directly by the airline), this seems highly likely to happen.
Only time will tell what aircraft Air India will use for these routes. While Air India has a bunch of Airbus A350s on order, I imagine in the near future the airline is likely to use Boeing 777s, either those that have been in the carrier’s fleet for a long time, or some of the leased aircraft, which are comprised of former Delta 777-200LRs, former Etihad 777-300ERs, and former Singapore Airlines 777-300ERs.
These new routes would complement Air India’s existing service to the United States, including to Chicago (ORD), New York (JFK), Newark (EWR), San Francisco (SFO), and Washington (IAD). Air India also flies to Canada, with flights to Toronto (YYZ) and Vancouver (YVR).
This Air India expansion makes a lot of sense
Air India has been privatized, and is in the process of reinventing itself. The airline is investing hugely in modernizing its fleet and improving the passenger experience. This includes ordering 470 new aircraft, introducing new cabins, retrofitting existing aircraft, and completely rebranding.
India is a huge aviation market, and for so long, Air India has essentially handed the market to the Gulf carriers when it comes to offering quality long haul service. That’s finally starting to change.
It’s not surprising to see Air India now looking to greatly expand service to the United States, given that it has a huge competitive advantage. Air India can use Russian airspace on flights to the United States, while US carriers can’t. Not only does this significantly reduce travel time, but it makes routes possible that US airlines simply can’t serve due to range limitations of existing aircraft.
Clearly these three markets (and especially Dallas and Seattle) are about serving the large demand for travel to and from India from the local community, since Air India doesn’t have any major partners with connectivity there. The airline should have no trouble filling those planes, given the volume of travelers.
Interestingly this isn’t the first time that Air India has planned such service. In 2017, Air India’s CEO at the time announced plans to launch Dallas and Los Angeles flights. However, that never came to fruition. Suffice it to say that the airline is now better positioned to operate this service, both in terms of its new strategy, plus its competitive advantage.
Bottom line
While it hasn’t been officially announced yet by Air India, everything is pointing toward the airline launching flights from Delhi to Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The airline has updated its route map to reflect this, and we also recently saw a schedule filing for some of this service.
This would be some mighty impressive expansion on Air India’s part, so I can’t wait to see this formalized.
What do you make of Air India’s planned expansion to the United States?
Sounds exciting . What about adding one for the east coast like Charlotte ?
Please do all three routes! Anything to stick it to Qatar for its human rights issues.
Air India need to start Atl Delhi flight as the demand is very high. Over 1000 people fly and due to limited direct flight, people are catching their flights from Ny, ord and Washington DC. If someone is listening in TATA they have to act as soon as their new crafts arrives.
Dr Tangirala Atlanta
Estimate of over 250,000 of Indian origin living in DFW; many of my friends have gotten their Parents Green Cards, they live in the US for half the year. And, my friends tend to visit India each year. Seems a no-brainer. AI's in-flight will have to improve, they've been on the two daily flights from DFW via Arabia, they have expections.
This is the first major slavo from Air India. It spells the death knell of the ME3 carriers, specially to BOM, DEL and BLR.
Most of AirIndia flights from USA land in either Delhi or Mumbai.
For folks flying to other airports in India. The gulf airlines are more convenient.
Nice news! If only Bombay could get more flights due to its geographic location facilitating better connectivity generally.
Without non-stop flights from Chennai the gateway city to the South with a huge number of people traveling to the USA..Air India will not be able to get any of them since no one wants to connect in Delhi.
It's much easier to use the ME airlines or Singapore Airlines Cathay Pacific or even the major European airlines. Air India is too Delhi centric. They have completely ignored Chennai.
Chennai is Gateway to Tamilnadu, not to south.
South has other Alternatives like BLR, Hyd etc
Gateway to South should be Bangalore. Bangalore is becoming more popular than Chennai. There is more business traffic flying to/from Bangalore than Chennai. Chennai is Gateway to Tamil Nadu.
Chennai Airport (even the new terminal) is run like a Government railway station and is a miserable experience at every level. I will actively go out of my way to avoid that dump given a choice.
Surprised that DFW would be picked over Atlanta, which probably has about 20 to 25% more traffic in terms of passengers to India and doesn't have to compete with Emirates not serving that city.
Similar to Delhi , Bangalore can be made as a Southern hub and direct flights twice a week can be started to these three US cities as several thousand south Indians work in these cities.
Chennai is a much better choice with so many diversity of industries including IT and the gateway city to South India. If MAA is privatized it would attract a lot more airlines. Do you know that MAA has the largest number of international travelers after DEL and BOM.. look it up.
With the aircraft currently available on the market, I don't think any plane would have enough range to be able to fly from Bangalore to Dallas or LAX (I think Seattle is possible) without significant weight restrictions. That would mean the planes would have to be in a light, all premium configuration, for which I don't think there is a market for on these routes.
But will it be pee-proof? 'The nation wants to know'... :)
Such a stupid comment.
So true!
Investigating the airindia.com site, it turns out that starting mid Feb, Air India is selling tickets from Dallas DFW to New Delhi DEL. But, this is actually United Airlines flights out of Dallas DFW to either Chicago ORD or Washington IAD and connecting to an Air India operated flight to the journey to India. Therefore nonstop DFW to DEL flights are still not being sold. It appears that Air India has finally finalized a code...
Investigating the airindia.com site, it turns out that starting mid Feb, Air India is selling tickets from Dallas DFW to New Delhi DEL. But, this is actually United Airlines flights out of Dallas DFW to either Chicago ORD or Washington IAD and connecting to an Air India operated flight to the journey to India. Therefore nonstop DFW to DEL flights are still not being sold. It appears that Air India has finally finalized a code sharing / connecting agreement with United that allows them to sell United tickets through Airindia.com or its agents.
Air India has had an interline agreement with United for at least 50 years, probably longer.
But Sean, you could not buy on the Air India website until now a flight segment on United despite the interline agreement, despite being members of star alliance. Air India would allow you to buy a ticket via Frankfurt and code share the Frankfurt to USA segment with Lufthansa. For the last 50 years, I have been flying Air India. My Dad used to fly as a Pilot for Air India and was Director of...
But Sean, you could not buy on the Air India website until now a flight segment on United despite the interline agreement, despite being members of star alliance. Air India would allow you to buy a ticket via Frankfurt and code share the Frankfurt to USA segment with Lufthansa. For the last 50 years, I have been flying Air India. My Dad used to fly as a Pilot for Air India and was Director of Operations, Regional Director, ... I currently live in the US, but out of loyalty do fly AI every chance I get.
India (along with its neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh) have huge populations and untapped travel needs. Decades ago all three countries could boast of world class airlines.
Unfortunately today, the middle east carriers simply offer a far more reliable and comfortable product that usually outweighs the non-stop advantage that Air India has to most cities. May be this will change with new leadership.
Theres still many who will prefer AI no matter what for the nonstop convenience and going in economy class none of the carriers are all that great. Secondly theres a group of travelers who will refuse to fly or transit through countries with predominance of particular religion of that area (I know my brother in law is like that, and a Modi fanatic!)
Actually most people in the South will continue to connect via the ME airlines and others. No one wants to go to Delhi to connect... it's a nightmare and the connections are poor.
The majority of travelers to the USA are from the south.
At first, I was pretty bummed about AI planning flights to DFW (me being in Houston) but then again, since these new planned routes are flying to DEL and not everyone are flying to DEL as their final destination, DFW can have AI and have fun with that!!! I honestly don't see this route lasting very long as not very many folks are fond of flying into DEL or BOM and dealing with connecting flights...
At first, I was pretty bummed about AI planning flights to DFW (me being in Houston) but then again, since these new planned routes are flying to DEL and not everyone are flying to DEL as their final destination, DFW can have AI and have fun with that!!! I honestly don't see this route lasting very long as not very many folks are fond of flying into DEL or BOM and dealing with connecting flights to their final destinations AND in order to fly between DFW - DEL nonstop, they'll either have to go with Boeing 777-200LR or the Airbus A350ULR!
oh wow, jealous much then?
Nope, absolutely not! Unless it flew nonstop to Kochi then I would be jelly!
Where do you get that idea from?
The A359ULR is a defunct concept, seeing as all new-build A359s are now capable of 283T MTOWs and the higher fuel tankage permitted by the -ULR modifications, with the advantage of not having to seal the forward cargo hold.
There's no A350-1000ULR as of yet (the...
Where do you get that idea from?
The A359ULR is a defunct concept, seeing as all new-build A359s are now capable of 283T MTOWs and the higher fuel tankage permitted by the -ULR modifications, with the advantage of not having to seal the forward cargo hold.
There's no A350-1000ULR as of yet (the "Sunrise" aircraft for Qantas can likely be considered such when produced), but there's no need for that, as DEL-DFW is well within the range of standard A359s and A35Ks.
Cool!
It will take several years before the culture at AI can be materially improved. In the mean time many passengers will appreciate the non stops and most routes will likely succed
Air India will face immense competition from Qatar and Emirates on these routes and has nowhere near the level of service or product that these carriers have, or the deep pockets. Wouldn't surprise Me to see either carrier (esp Qatar) to add another frequency and exploit the ONEWORLD advantage in all three cities with DFW and Seattle getting a close look.
DFW already has 2x daily flights to Doha on Qatar. One flight is on a A35K while the other is a 77L. I think we might see QR switch the 77L to a 77W or A359/K.
While AI doesn't have the level of service as QR, EK and TK, there are many people who may value a nonstop flight, especially if the price is competitive. Airfare is also generally higher from Dallas to the...
DFW already has 2x daily flights to Doha on Qatar. One flight is on a A35K while the other is a 77L. I think we might see QR switch the 77L to a 77W or A359/K.
While AI doesn't have the level of service as QR, EK and TK, there are many people who may value a nonstop flight, especially if the price is competitive. Airfare is also generally higher from Dallas to the Indian Subcontinent than flights from the East Coast (including ATL, MCO, TPA, and especially compared to Chicago, NYC, Boston, etc.). Most Indians going back home to visit family are price sensitive, and as long as the experience is good on Air India, they won't mind taking it again.
Qatar and Emirates are both maxed out on their bilateral rights to India so their ability to influence the market on any single route is limited by the last leg capacity. Air India would like nothing more than QR or EK to fill up an entire planeload of pax flying from DFW to DEL via their hubs, that just means that they are not able to fill that up with passengers from other origins. Air...
Qatar and Emirates are both maxed out on their bilateral rights to India so their ability to influence the market on any single route is limited by the last leg capacity. Air India would like nothing more than QR or EK to fill up an entire planeload of pax flying from DFW to DEL via their hubs, that just means that they are not able to fill that up with passengers from other origins. Air India holds all the cards right now and the commercial viability of this expansion is less about competitive response than it is about matching pricing to operating costs.
It would be nice if Air India adds flights to Delhi from Atlanta and Miami
Actually If Dallas ( DFW ) is indeed the choosen one. I see the route doing extremely well. Tata Consultancy Service the owner of Air India has a massive presence in the area and you can almost count that it will be compulsory to fly the company airline. Good luck to Air India and hope to see it in Texas soon.
I wonder how UA/AA will react to this, with both operating their own flights from the East Coast. Between the core interest of DFW captives (for AA) and other hub/city (LAX/SEA) they must not take this development lightly. I wonder if the lobbying group would have something similar to the pushback against Chines carriers gaining additional slots.
AI was perhaps the only longhaul airline in the world to completely avoid LAX and heavily focus on SFO — that too from three cities: DEL, BOM and BLR. Vietnam Airlines is the only other airline I can think of that serves SFO but not LAX. With major Northeast Asian carriers — especially the Taiwanese ones like EVA and Starlux — LAX is the premier, prestige destination in the US.
Air India served Los Angeles starting in 2004 with Boeing 747-400s, then with Boeing 777-200s starting in 2005 (ex-UA airframes) and finally with a dedicated ex-Air Canada Boeing 747-400 Combi via Frankfurt. The route was a miserable failure and ended after the lease on the Combi came to an end around 2008 or so.
Doesn't Vietnam Airlines serve SFO but not (yet) LAX?
I’d argue that SFO is overtaking LAX as the premier prestige destination from Asia in several ways. SFO has: 4 daily nonstop flights to SIN (vs LAX 10x weekly); flights to DEL/BOM/BLR (LAX will be getting 4x weekly to DEL if it ever actually takes off); SGN (not served ex-LAX); more flights to TPE (even factoring CI’s ONT flight); SFO punches above its weight in flights to HKG, ICN, TYO; Miat and TG have both...
I’d argue that SFO is overtaking LAX as the premier prestige destination from Asia in several ways. SFO has: 4 daily nonstop flights to SIN (vs LAX 10x weekly); flights to DEL/BOM/BLR (LAX will be getting 4x weekly to DEL if it ever actually takes off); SGN (not served ex-LAX); more flights to TPE (even factoring CI’s ONT flight); SFO punches above its weight in flights to HKG, ICN, TYO; Miat and TG have both stated their intention to start service to the USA via SFO.
@Justin,
With the exception of India and Vietnam, both of whom have their consulates in SFO due to longer standing business development with NorCal (and in the case of Indians) much higher population...
....just about everything you mentioned is more a result of having a single-airline global hub at SFO, versus the hyper-competitive smaller stateside hubs at LAX.
Looking at just the foreign flags (i.e. "from Asia" as you said), the Taiwanese, Japanese, Chinese, Singaporean,...
@Justin,
With the exception of India and Vietnam, both of whom have their consulates in SFO due to longer standing business development with NorCal (and in the case of Indians) much higher population...
....just about everything you mentioned is more a result of having a single-airline global hub at SFO, versus the hyper-competitive smaller stateside hubs at LAX.
Looking at just the foreign flags (i.e. "from Asia" as you said), the Taiwanese, Japanese, Chinese, Singaporean, and especially Korean carriers, still offer more service to LAX.
The (few) higher per-flight numbers are an aspect of UA's connecting hub, on top of those.
Granted, that's not to say that SFO doesn't punch extremely highly above its weight for service, it really does; but also doesn't really indicate "premier" anything.
For Taiwanese airlines, LAX makes sense as the premier destination because the largest west coast (and perhaps largest US) Taiwanese community is in SoCal, particularly in the San Gabriel Valley (which is why CI also serves ONT) and Irvine areas. Additionally, EVA has a pretty good Southeast Asia connecting business and there's a lot of people with ties to those countries in SoCal (for example, the largest Vietnamese community in the US is in Orange...
For Taiwanese airlines, LAX makes sense as the premier destination because the largest west coast (and perhaps largest US) Taiwanese community is in SoCal, particularly in the San Gabriel Valley (which is why CI also serves ONT) and Irvine areas. Additionally, EVA has a pretty good Southeast Asia connecting business and there's a lot of people with ties to those countries in SoCal (for example, the largest Vietnamese community in the US is in Orange County). For Air India, there's a much larger Indian community in the Bay Area than in LA, plus when you factor in tech industry and biopharma industry ties between India and the Bay Area, it makes sense that SFO would be their premier west coast destination. The differences in priority west coast airports between AI and EVA / CI / Starlux is driven by the differences in business and VFR traffic, not which airport or city is more "prestigious" to serve
Why DFW > IAH? Houston is both a United hub and Air India is in Star Alliance + has a substantial Indian community, evidenced by the Indian PM Modi's 50,000+ person rally there
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1W70AZ/
DFW is a particularly important destination for Telugu people, who come from Telangana (whose capital is Hyderabad) and Andhra Pradesh (whose capital is also technically Hyderabad, but supposedly not for much longer… long story). When Etihad served DFW, a great proportion of passengers would connect to HYD, and that’s still true of EK and QR’s flights today.
Also, AI and UA don’t cooperate at all, so it’s not like IAH would give a lot of...
DFW is a particularly important destination for Telugu people, who come from Telangana (whose capital is Hyderabad) and Andhra Pradesh (whose capital is also technically Hyderabad, but supposedly not for much longer… long story). When Etihad served DFW, a great proportion of passengers would connect to HYD, and that’s still true of EK and QR’s flights today.
Also, AI and UA don’t cooperate at all, so it’s not like IAH would give a lot of domestic connecting feed. SFO is one of AI’s most important US destinations but it’s purely O&D — UA’s hub has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Dfw has much larger indian community than IAH and not much close ties between united and AI
Not much larger. IAH is the 5th largest Indian community to DFWs 4th largest. Also, IAH has more spread out India demand than DFW
Supposedly the DFW route is being incentivised by a Hindu temple committee that is providing financial support on the condition that Air India can provide one-stop connectivity between Dallas and the new airport in Ayodhya.
Not sure why anyone is cheering this TBH. Air India's hard and soft products are awful. It will probably be a decade (if ever) before the promised changes reach the average economy passenger.
I have flown on AI half a dozen times from US to India and never had an issue. Most of the issues stemmed from poor maintenance and with new aircraft and new management in place hopefully those should be no longer be an issue. Would rather fly on AI than AA any day. Plus this open up 1 stop connections to a whole bunch of tier 2/3 cities that the ME carriers do not serve....
I have flown on AI half a dozen times from US to India and never had an issue. Most of the issues stemmed from poor maintenance and with new aircraft and new management in place hopefully those should be no longer be an issue. Would rather fly on AI than AA any day. Plus this open up 1 stop connections to a whole bunch of tier 2/3 cities that the ME carriers do not serve. More competition = Lower fares and more options. Large number of elderly folks would rather connect via DEL than an airport in a foreign country. In short lot of reasons to cheer for any new flights.
Really? Then you have some low standards. AI is one o the crappiest airlines in terms of service, ambiance, baggage handling, cleanliness, food quality, etc., till now... will see how they fare under TATA.
AA may not be great, but I'd rather fly by AA than AI if those are the only two options. Otherwise, my options will always be QR, EK, and JAL from DFW to DEL.
Exactly! I don't see any reason to cheer flying by AI. They are horrible in service, baggage, food, cleanliness, ambiance - you name it. Other than a bunch of nationalists who want to eat their food and speak in their languages, I have no reason to fly by AI.
There has to be some penalty for foreign airlines that are using Russian air space. It’s not possible for the US3 to launch flights to DEL via DFW/LAX/SEA due to that restriction, so why is AI allowed?
Levying a penalty just because a country does not mirror USA's policy towards another nation is not justifiable.
Given the US needs India in their geopolitical strategies against China, I highly doubt they would introduce such a penalty
It may make more sense to impose a restriction on Russian overflight for all US-bound flights instead of cutting off AI. The US-bound Air India flight diversion to Russia late last year thankfully resulted in no harm but could have been a flashpoint nonetheless with US citizens and LPRs in a small Russian town
Then tell the US to stop sticking their nose into other people's affairs. Why should the US impose penalty on airlines using Russian airspace when the US is complicit in the genocide being committed against innocent people. They are providing bombs and every kind of arms and artillery to the oppressor.
@Tiger So you think that Hamas and Russia are more moral the the US and Israel? Wow.
@Marjorie
In terms of Russia vs. Israel, that one can be numerically compared:
The latter in 3months, has killed more civilians in aggregate, than the former in nearly 2years; which is a particularly unsettling feat, considering the much smaller targeted population size that's involved.
So, dunno what your definition of "moral" is-- but know that it's beyond f#cked up,...
@Marjorie
In terms of Russia vs. Israel, that one can be numerically compared:
The latter in 3months, has killed more civilians in aggregate, than the former in nearly 2years; which is a particularly unsettling feat, considering the much smaller targeted population size that's involved.
So, dunno what your definition of "moral" is-- but know that it's beyond f#cked up, if you believe that that constitutes morality in any manner.
@Marjorie
You are mentally corrupted if you think that Israel and the US are more moral than the others. Look at the hypocrisy of the US and the West. As soon as Russia attacked Ukraine, they imposed sanctions on Russia. But when it come to Israel, they are the ones supporting Israel to kill innocent people. The West saw what Hamas did to Israel on 7th October 2023, but they ignored the fact that...
@Marjorie
You are mentally corrupted if you think that Israel and the US are more moral than the others. Look at the hypocrisy of the US and the West. As soon as Russia attacked Ukraine, they imposed sanctions on Russia. But when it come to Israel, they are the ones supporting Israel to kill innocent people. The West saw what Hamas did to Israel on 7th October 2023, but they ignored the fact that Israel has been doing the same to Palestinians since 1948. Israel's own former IDF soldiers have been giving interviews and telling the truth that Israel is the oppressor. You defending Israel (the occupier) shamelessly shows how moral you are.
As @ConcordeBoy boys has stated, Russia has not killed as many people in 2 years as Israel has killed in 3 months and that too majority of them being women and young children.
Air India chooses to overfly Russia (not "allowed to" because they don't need to seek US permission for what they are "allowed" to do in that respect) because there is an open skies agreement between India and the USA (unlike between the US and other countries like China for example) which doesn't permit the US from unilaterally imposing such restrictions. They can terminate the agreement or negotiate a side letter if they really wanted to,...
Air India chooses to overfly Russia (not "allowed to" because they don't need to seek US permission for what they are "allowed" to do in that respect) because there is an open skies agreement between India and the USA (unlike between the US and other countries like China for example) which doesn't permit the US from unilaterally imposing such restrictions. They can terminate the agreement or negotiate a side letter if they really wanted to, but this is not a hill the USG wants to die on with respect to the larger relationship with India.
Furthermore, there have been plenty of instances in the past when Air India was restricted from overflying Pakistan on their US routes, but US carriers were perfectly happy to do so. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Will be great to see them finally return to LAX, this time with a nonstop!