Air India to start direct flight service from Delhi to San Francisco via Russia

Government-owned international airline – Air India – will now begin operating direct flights to San Francisco city on various routes, with Russia and East Siberian Sea falling on the routes. This is being done in order to save time and money, as per the latest news reports.
The flight officials believe that routing the flight through Russia would cut down the journey duration by two hours given the fact that weather, tailwinds, and other natural factors are favourable.

The officials told the press that the Delhi-San Francisco flight was launched about two years back as one of the longest flights in the world. Even though the new route would reduce travel time, the block hours would still be around 17 hours, according to the rough calculations made by the airline officials. Block hours, for the unacquainted, is the time span measured from
starting the aircraft’s engine to switching it off.
However, the flight duration through the new route would be based on the route availability and the weather conditions. The flight to reach San Francisco flying over Russia was launched on Monday. The information about the fuel consumption on the new route and time taken is yet to be known. If everything goes well and the costs are favourable, only then the Russia route will be pursued allowing the airline to reach its destination in 14 hours 15 minutes.

"Air India will be flexible in opting for the route while operating the flight," an airline official was quoted as saying.