American Airlines has increased the frequency of its upcoming New York to Delhi flights. The airline will now fly to India’s capital on a daily basis for the entire year, which is up from just three times a week during non-peak times. The route is on track to launch on 31st October. Let’s find out more about American’s decision to double down on its first India route since 2012.
Doubling down
First spotted by One Mile At A Time, American Airlines has decided to increase the frequency of its new New York JFK to Delhi route to a daily service. Previously, American planned to operate the route at a 3x weekly frequency and increasing it to daily only from November 17th to January 1st to serve the busy winter season.
The route is still slated to kick off on October 31st of this year, alongside American’s new Bangalore to Seattle route. Currently, the US has imposed a ban on travelers who have been in India for the last 14 days except for citizens, permanent residents, and select other categories. However, the ban could be rescinded or amended by October, allowing traffic to return.
As mentioned earlier, the JFK-DEL route would be American’s first foray into India after its exit in 2012. The airline last flew a Delhi-Chicago service, which was pulled due to unprofitability. However, as demand for direct services to the US increases in light of the pandemic, American is seizing the opportunity like many others.
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Schedule
American’s latest ultra-long-haul route will depart New York JFK at 20:10 and arrive in Delhi the next evening at 19:30 local times. This flight, AA292, will take 13 hours and 50 minutes. The return leg, AA293, will depart Delhi at 23:55 and arrive in New York at 06:30 AM local time. This flight is much longer at 16 hours and five minutes since it’s faster to fly east than west.
American’s JFK arrival of 06:30 AM will be extremely conducive to business travelers. United’s Newark arrival at 04:30 AM has long been a favorite for business passengers since it gives ample time to prepare for work on the same day. While American’s arrival is closer to Air India’s 07:35 AM JFK arrival, 06:30 AM could be a sweet spot for some.
American is joining a busy market this fall. Currently, there are three routes serving Delhi and New York, United’s daily flights to Newark, Air India’s daily flights to JFK, and Air India’s 6x weekly service to Newark. The addition of American will boost capacity and could even result in fares coming down due to the added competition.
The route also breaks the Star Alliance’s monopoly of US-India flights. In the future, Vistara might also be joining the New York market, further increasing competition and finally giving India much-needed direct capacity to the US.
What do you think about American’s new route? Will it find success in India this time around? Let us know in the comments!
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