American Airlines has announced two new international routes from Seattle.
The carrier will launch flights to Bengaluru (Bangalore) in October 2020, and to London Heathrow in March 2021.
Both will be daily services.
A start date was not given, but Bengaluru tickets are set to go on sale by the end of the month. The route will be operated by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
It will be the carrier’s only flight from the US to India since it stopped flying to Delhi in 2012, and offer the only nonstop route from Seattle to India.
American’s head of network strategy, Vasu Raja, said the West Coast routes would complement the airline’s “strong existing international network from LAX”.
On the Bengaluru launch, Raja commented: “India is a grossly underserved market, despite the number of businesses with a major presence in both India and the West Coast.
“By adding Seattle to Bangalore, we’re giving customers from more than 70 US cities access to India in one stop or less, versus the two, three or four stops they’d have to make to get there in the past.”
Raja told USA Today that American’s top corporate customers had been requesting a Bangalore route for more than two years. Tech firms including Dell and Texas Instruments have bases in the city.
KLM, Lufthansa, Ethiopian Airlines and Japan Airlines all announced new routes to the Indian city last year.
It will be among the first destinations to be served by British Airways’ A350 aircraft featuring its new Club Suite business class.
A second runway at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport began operations in December last year.
The city formally changed its name from Bangalore to Bengaluru in 2014.
American Airlines also today announced a closer partnership with Alaska Airlines, including the ability to earn and use miles on both airlines’ full networks, elite status reciprocity, and lounge access to American Admirals Club lounges and Alaska Lounges.
It was previously reported that the airlines would end their loyalty partnership on March 1.
American’s Vasu Raja told USA Today this was another motivation for expanding at Seattle, where Alaska Airlines has more than 350 daily flights.
Other upcoming routes for American Airlines include a daily Boston-London Heathrow service launching on March 29 2020; and flights from Los Angeles to Christchurch, New Zealand and Dallas Fort Worth to Auckland, New Zealand, both launching as three-times weekly seasonal services in October 2020.
