The Hindu Business Line : Non-stop flights bring India, US closer

THE distance between India and the United States has become that much shorter thanks to two US airlines — Continental and American Airlines — launching non-stop services to Delhi from New York and Chicago respectively.

While Continental's daily New York-Delhi flight is already offering the convenience of direct connection, American Airlines is also set to start its Chicago-Delhi flight — the longest for the airline — later this week on November 17.

The Managing Director, Asia and Pacific, American Airlines, Mr Athar Khan, told Business Line that the non-stop flight would save anything between 1 hour 50 minutes and 2 hours 50 minutes on Delhi-Chicago travel. Similarly, Continental said its flight had reduced travel time between Delhi and major US cities by at least two hours. Officials indicated that while it would take a passenger 17 hours 45 minutes to travel between India and Chicago on Air India, and 18 hours 45 minutes on the German airline Lufthansa, American Airlines would take just 15 hours 55 minutes.

Besides saving time, the non-stop flights would also do away with the need for getting transit visas, which some European countries demand for connecting flights.

Attractive perks: Both airlines are wooing travellers with a host of perks, beginning with a promotional fare of Rs 38,000.

Passengers from Delhi can also use Continental's exclusive customs and immigration facilities and connect to 170 cities throughout the Americas, in almost all cases without even changing terminals.

Those travelling non-stop to Chicago will have the option of immediate connections to 125 cities in the US, and the American Airlines tie-up with Air Sahara will provide greater reach for travellers within India as well.

"Air Sahara plans to have connections within 120 minutes of the arrival of the American Airlines flight to at least three cities — Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore," Mr Khan said.

Bollywood movies, Indian music and special Indian meals are some of the other tempting features offered on the non-stop flights. "We have been delighted with the very enthusiastic response of the Indian market.

Forward bookings are in line with our expectations. We expect to carry around 1,50,000 passengers (75,000 in each direction) in our first year of operation.

Of course, we expect that our service will help the traffic to grow in both directions on the India-US route," a spokesman of Continental Airlines said.

There are other reasons also for this optimism.

Open skies: India and the US signed an open skies agreement in April this year, lifting restrictions on Indian and US carriers operating to each other's countries.

While American airlines have already started operations, Air India is also examining the prospect of starting non-stop services between India and the US.

What has also made these non-stop flights possible is the grant of traffic rights for the route by the US Department of Transportation and the Indian Government.

The availability of the appropriate aircraft (Boeing 777) and the opening of airspace over Russia too have helped the process.

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