Bengaluru: Air India is set to spread its wings further in the United States with the commencement of its first-ever non-stop service between Bengaluru and San Francisco with an all-women crew.
Connecting the world’s two tech hubs – the original Silicon Valley and the Silicon Valley of India. The first flight AI 176 from San Francisco to Bengaluru will operate on Saturdays and Tuesdays. The flight will leave from San Francisco at 2030 hrs (Local Time/LT) on January 9 to land at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here at 0345 hrs (LT) on January 11, according to a release issued on Saturday.
The flight will operate with a Boeing 777-200LR aircraft VT ALG with a seating capacity of 238 including 8 First Class, 35 Business Class,195 Economy class configuration besides 4 Cockpit and 12 Cabin crew.
The flight will be operated by an all-women Cockpit Crew of Capt Zoya Aggarwal (P1), Capt Papagari Thanmai(P1), Capt Akansha Sonaware (P2) and Capt Shivani Manhas (P2).
Captain Zoya Aggarwal is an accomplished pilot with a flying experience of more than 8000 hrs and command experience in a B-777 aircraft of more than 10 years and more than 2500 flying hours.
The direct distance between Bengaluru and San Francisco is 13,993 kms approx. and the cities are diametrically at opposite ends of the world with a time zone change of approx.13.5 hours.
The total flight time on this route will be more than 17 hours depending on the wind speed on that particular day. The route for this flight will be the safest, fastest and most economical. It will be an around-the-world flight and based on the wind speed and other logistical parameters, the polar route may be chosen as the flight path, which will result in savings on flying time, fuel consumption and curbing carbon footprint.
This will be the longest commercial flight in the world to be operated by Air India or any other airline in India. Air India is engaging an all-women cockpit crew for this flight. Air India has the highest women employees ratio for an airline in the world. Capt Nivedita Bhasin, Executive Director (Flight Safety), Air India, is also travelling on this flight.
It will be the first-ever non-stop route between the West Coast of the USA and South India, which will also be accessible to cities in neighbouring states via short domestic flights(UNI)
