After San Francisco, AI plans direct flight to Washington

Air India is considering starting a direct flight to Washington as well as serving new cities in the US soon after it launches its services to San Francisco next month.
The national carrier already operates non-stop flights to three US cities -- New York, Newark and Chicago.
"I have been informed by Air India that it is considering a direct flight to Washington," Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has said.
He was speaking here yesterday at a function organised by Air India prior to the launch of its direct flight to San Francisco from December 2.
According to a senior official at Air India, apart from direct services to Washington, the carrier would be looking at the feasibility of connecting more number of cities in the US from various places in India.

The official said the launch flight, both to and from San Francisco in California, has already been sold out and the demand was "tremendous".

Air India used to serve Washington via New York, but the service was discontinued a few years ago. The carrier also had flights to Los Angeles in California, which was discontinued before the merger of Indian Airlines with Air India in 2011.
The non-stop Delhi-San Francisco flight, starting services from December 2, will be one of the longest with duration of close to 17 hours. Air India will operate B77-200LR plane to San Francisco -- the Silicon Valley hub.

"This new flight will be a boon for the Indian diaspora in the US West Coast, making travel easy and convenient for students," the carrier said in a release.
The flight to San Francisco will leave Delhi on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday while the return service will be on Thursday, Saturday and Monday.
With a three-cabin configuration, the flight will have eight seats in first class, 35 in business and 195 in economy.
Passengers from IT hubs of Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Ahmedabad and Pune will have seamless connection to the flight from Delhi, Air India said.
"The return flight from San Francisco will provide onward connections to cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Bhubaneswar," the release said.

"While taking the western route to San Francisco, we
usually face headwinds of 24 kmph. If our aircraft is doing 800 kmph, its actual ground speed is 776 kmph. Taking the (eastern) Pacific route to San Francisco will mean getting tailwinds of 138 kmph which will make the aircraft have an actual ground speed of 938 kmph," the pilot said.
In summer, flying time to SFO over Pacific will be 16 hours - an hour less than the Atlantic route. And in winter, the difference will be as high as up to three hours between the two routes, said the official.

DGCA's latest operational circular, issued this month, would be for operations in the North Pacific area where there are fixed tracks NOPAC (North Pacific) and flexible tracking PACOTS (Pacific Organised Track System) along with UPR (User Preferred Routes) in defined areas.
"North Pacific region has airspace managed by Canada, Japan, Russia and the United States. The Pacific region is also characterised by vast oceanic areas with sparse land areas and consequently few enroute alternate aerodromes for flight planned across this," it said.
Among others, DGCA said all Pacific operations training courses should get approved by its FSD, DGCA before use as well as prior to the syllabus getting incorporated in the Operators Manual.

Besides, recurrent training would be required annually.