How Air India benefits from using Russian airspace

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  • AMcWhirter
    Participant

    Air India’s US services are increasing because it offers an advantage N American carriers cannot match.

    Today Air India launches a very long flight linking Mumbai to San Francisco non-stop.

    N American carriers have either suspended their services to India or else, in the case of Air Canada, they operate one-stop.

    Air Canada to launch seasonal London-Mumbai route


    Woodpecker
    Participant

    The majority of passengers flying between USA & India tend to use one of the three Middle Eastern carriers, with Emirates being the first preference.

    Even so, there seems to be enough traffic for Air India to want a share of the pie and get a full load. A non stop flight over Russian airspace could potentially shorten flying time by two hours in addition to the ME layover period.


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    In fact Emirates also uses Russian airspace for some (perhaps all) of its Dubai-N American services.

    For example, Emirates operates LAX-DXB non-stop with an A380. It’s a 16 hour flight and this wouldn’t be possible were it not to overfly Russia.

    I ought to have mentioned that Air India has acquired a small number of B777-200LRs from Delta to operate these US non-stops.

    As cab be seen in the tweet below the cabin interior remains as before.

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