Fly directly to San Francisco from Mumbai soon

Currently there are no flights to the west coast of the United States from Mumbai.

Come summer, international flyers travelling to the west coast of the United States need not go to the national capital Delhi first. Mumbaiitees will soon be able to fly directly to San Francisco, thanks to the national carrier Air India. For its summer schedule, Air India which is likely to be privatised this year, has announced its first ever direct flight from Mumbai to the west coast of United States. Until now, the only direct flight from India to San Francisco was from Delhi. In the Indian aviation context, summer schedule typically commences from March end and continues till late October. The flights between Mumbai and San Francisco will operate thrice a week and a Boeing 777 aircraft has been deployed for the same.

The flights will be operated by national carrier Air India.(HT FILE)

Currently, there are six operations from Delhi to San Francisco in a week. Once the operations from Mumbai began, the total number of flights to the Californian city will increase to nine.

According to Air India officials, the plan to connect Mumbai directly to San Francisco comes after the national carrier’s routes to the US have seen good traffic.

“There are direct flights to Chicago and New York from Delhi. We also have a direct flight operating to Newark in New Jersey from Mumbai, which is seeing good passenger traffic. We are expecting the first direct connectivity from Mumbai to San Francisco also to do well,” said an airline official on condition of anonymity.

According to recent media reports, Air India’s new chairman and managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola is keen to explore US and Australian markets and had said that the airline is also working to improve their On Time Performance (OTP).