News
Delhi approves India-U.S. trans-Pacific flights
September 2nd 2016
India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has told India’s carriers they could route their India-U.S. West Coast flights over the Pacific, provided they meet all regulatory and operational requirements. Read More »
Air India is the only Indian airline that flies to the West Coast, on a three times a week Delhi-San Francisco B777-200LR schedule. The flag carrier said the decision will significantly improve the flying time between the cities as well as reducing fuel costs.
"Reducing the flying time to SFO, from an hour in summer to three hours in winter (due to high tailwinds then), will produce fuel savings. So it will be a win-win for fliers and the airline," a senior Air India pilot said in the Deccan Chronicle.
Air India has three B777-200LRs and twelve B777-300ERs in its fleet. The carrier has told Orient Aviation the San Francisco route is performing exceptionally well with load factors exceeding 90%. It hoped to upgrade the route to daily next year.
The flag carrier is the only Indian airline equipped to operate nonstop trans-Pacific flights. Jet Airways lacks suitable aircraft and last month it deferred its ten on-order B787-9s once again, this time to 2019. It ordered its Dreamliners in 2006.
In Sri Lanka, SriLankan Airlines, a member of the oneworld alliance, is expected to lose $50 million in revenue when its Colombo Bandaranaike hub has its single runway partially closed for renovation next year. From January 6 to April 5, SriLankan will re-time all departures from 8:30am to 4:30pm and will cancel six daily routes during the period, including flights to Singapore, Male, Chennai, Kochi, Trichy and Bangalore.
