As direct flights catch on, United Airlines to expand capacity on Indian routes

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CHICAGO, IL - SEPTEMBER 19: A United Airlines jet taxis at O'Hare International Airport on September 19, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. In 2013, 67 million passengers passed through O'Hare, another 20 million passed through Chicago's Midway Airport, and the two airports combined moved more than 1.4 million tons of air cargo. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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With rising demand for direct flights to the US, Chicago-based United Airlines is set to increase its capacity at Indian destinations such as Mumbai and New Delhi. United, which operated in India as Continental Airline before the merger of the two carriers about eight years ago, flies direct to New York from Mumbai and Delhi. The airline started operations in India in 2005 but, for the first time in 13 years, it is now adding nearly 100 seats on the Mumbai-New York route.

Recently, United inducted its first 777-300 on this route, which used to be served by an older 777-200 aircraft. The older aircraft had 272 seats while the 777-300 has 366.

Better seats

“The new airplane has much more real estate. It has the best offering that we have in the business class, which we call the Polaris Business Class. Every business class seat will have aisle access. It also adds 10 more business class seats,” Harvinder Singh, Country Manager, India, United Airlines said. Direct flights to the US take anywhere between 14 and 18 hours compared to the 20-30 hours it takes to fly with 1-2 stops. The shorter travel time is making these flights immensely popular.

Competitive pricing

Earlier, these flights used to command a premium but now, with newer and more fuel-efficient aircraft deployed on them, the routes are more competitively priced. Apart from United, Air India is the only airline offering direct flights to the US. Air India, in fact, has ramped up its flights to the US, with direct flights to seven and two US destinations respectively from New Delhi and Mumbai.

“The overall demand to the US is fairly good. Most of our customers are corporate customers and for them there is a clear preference for a direct flight. The flight takes them directly to Newark (New Jersey) in 16 hours and from there they have connections to 90 destinations in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean,” Singh said. United has been trying to tap into the demand for India-US traffic through its partnership with Lufthansa. It is now looking at replacing its 777-200s on the New Delhi-New York route with the 777-300 to increase capacity further, though the actual deployment will depend on the delivery schedule of the new aircraft. With that, the airline will have nearly 50 per cent higher capacity on its Indian routes.