Air India to operate Delhi-San Francisco flight nine times a week

Air India has decided to operate nine flights every week from here to San Francisco soon, encouraged by the success of the direct six-days a week flight between Delhi and the city in the US west coast.

The three new flights to the 'Golden Gate City' will operate on every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday from the new summer schedule which comes into force from March 25.

"The San Francisco flight is clocking over 80 per cent seat factor since the launch in December 2015, and on days it runs to capacity. The addition of services would give travellers more choice to fly to the US West Coast," an airline official said.

The load factor, especially on Fridays and Sundays, remain high and double flights of these days would help meet the increased rush, the official said.

The three new flights will leave from here at 7.10 pm and arrive San Francisco at 8.30 pm local time. It will leave San Francisco at 1 am local time on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and arrive here 6 am.

As of now, the national carrier operates flights from New Delhi to San Francisco on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays which depart from here at 2.35 am and arrive in the US city at 6 am local time.

Besides San Francisco, there are daily flights of Air India to New York and Chicago from New Delhi and Newark from Mumbai, as well as three flights a week to Washington from New Delhi. It also flies to Newark via London from Ahmedabad.