Air India is soon going to operate almost as many nonstops to the US as it did in pre-pandemic times, thanks to a scramble to reach there for two main reasons.
Indians/NRIs/PIOs fear the US may also close its doors for them like several other countries have done during the ongoing uncontrolled explosion of Covid cases and are rushing back.
Secondly, they fear falling sick in India at a time when the healthcare system here has crumbled and crematoriums are working overtime. Due to this demand surge, Air India is going to operate 32 weekly nonstops to the US by May 11, just one shot of its pre-pandemic frequency of 33.
Canada last Friday (April 23) suspended all passenger flights from India for 30 days. Following this, Air India had to cancel all its flights to Vancouver and Toronto till May 22. Given the demand for the US and the B777s spare with Canada flights cancelled, the soon-to-be-privatized Maharaja started adding US nonstops under the air bubble between the two countries. It started a new route also, Delhi-Newark.
An Air India spokesperson said: “Prior to recent discontinuation of our flights to Canada, we were operating 29 flights per week to the US. We planned to increase the frequency to 30 and 32 per week from May 16 and 18, respectively. After discontinuation of Canada flights… an increase in frequency to 30 and 32 per week has been preponed to May 9 and 11, 2021, respectively.” In pre-covid days till March 15, 2020, Air India had about 33 flights weekly to the US.
