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Routes Inc: The Long Voyage to the Americas
- Maanav Parikh
- 7 minutes ago
- 8 min read
It's rather a known fact, even among the general public that the India-North America market is absolutely massive. It never ceases to amaze me that, despite being over 10,000 km long and riddled with airspace and logistical challenges, this route sees several daily non-stop flights, carrying millions of passengers, thanks to the growing Indian diaspora in the US and Canada. This made me wonder: how did direct flights evolve between these countries, and how, with the advent of modern aircraft, did nonstop flights between them emerge? Let's dig deeper!
The early era
In the early days, the India-North America market wasn't as big as it is now, so were a lot of major routes. Instead, several airlines flew certain routes only for prestige purposes, with the India-US-India sector being one of them. The famous Pan Am Airlines flew its around-the-world routes via Mumbai and Kolkata.
This was a very prestigious route for the iconic airline, but not the most economically viable one. After receiving its flagship 707 in the 1960s, Air India extended its London route to New York, making it the first asian airline to fly to the Big Apple and its most prestigious route in its growing network.
Despite the arrival of longer-range, wide-body jets like the 747 and the DC-10, growth remained slow due to economic slowdown and the 1973 oil crisis
Here comes the 80s and the 90s
By the end of 70s, Pan Am and Air India seemed to be the only airlines flying on the India-North America route, with occasionally TWA flying to Bombay. However, things would change in the 80s when the immigration boom started. In the 80s, Air India began short-lived flights to Montreal and Toronto via London, which would come to a grim halt as this flight became a victim of one of the deadliest terror attacks at that time in Air India 182.
An interesting route around this time was Air Canada's short-lived route to Singapore via Mumbai and London. This route was a widely publicized one by the airline since it was one of the few routes the airline flew to Asia, as Canadian Airlines had control over the market east of the Pacific.
The 90s were when the true boom in the India-North America market had started largely due to the end of the cold war and longer ranged aircraft. With a rise in immigration and several agreements, new flights started between the two markets. With Toronto back online, Air India began its 2nd ever destination in the US in Chicago after operating to New York for more than 30 years.
Having bought Pan Am's Frankfurt Hub, Delta also entered both Mumbai and Delhi via Frankfurt, further growing its global presence. Northwest Airlines also entered the market with flights via Amsterdam due to its Joint venture with KLM. United also briefly operated Round-The-World services with Delhi being one of the stops. On the Canadian side, Air Canada also operated 747 flights to Delhi via London.
The 2000s and the Lucky number triple 777
The late 90s and the Early 2000s were truly the times when the market started to change and take shape as we know it today. However, the new decade didn't start too pleasantly. The effect of 9/11, coupled with high costs, caused a lot of airlines to pull out their India routes. But that would not stop airlines from trying. In October 2001, a little-known Canadian airline by the name of Canada 3000 began non-stop flights between Delhi and Vancouver/Toronto using an A340-300, creating history by making it the first airline to fly non-stop between India and North America. However, this route was short-lived as the airline soon ceased operations. Interestingly, United planned to fly nonstop between Delhi and Chicago using a 747-400, but it never materialized due to the events of 9/11.
Around this time, we need to understand that operating such routes was not the most feasible option economically, since the long-haul aircraft of the time, like the 747 and the A340, were either too inefficient on these routes or didn't have the range on a full payload. However, one revolutionary aircraft from Boeing would change that forever: the 777. Released in 1995, the 777, with the help of its powerful twin engines and range, revolutionized long-haul flying and especially changed the India to the USA market. Continental Airlines would be one of the first to launch non-stops using a 777-200ER, launching flights from Newark to Delhi and later Mumbai.
Delta airlines follow soon with it's New York JFK to Mumbai route as well with the same aircraft. Interestingly, the airline also flew to Chennai via Paris to serve the growing demand of South Indian expats. American Airlines jumped on the India ship as well in 2005 launching a longer Chicago to Delhi flights.
But let's not forget Air India over here as well, they were also steadily growing their US presence by launching Newark and Los Angeles on their 747 and relaunch Toronto on their leased 777. Interestingly, these flights flew via various points of Europe like London, Paris, Frankfurt and even Birmingham for their flights to Toronto to serve the Punjabi community. Despite the growing demand and flights to the US, Canada was still a stagnat market as Air canada was still on and off in the India market even once flying nonstop to Delhi using their A340-500.
The Indian Airlines would have their breakout year in 2007 as Air India begin nonstops to New York and later all its other destinations using its new fleet of 777-200LR/777-300ER and Jet Airways would begin flight to New York, Newark and Toronto via an Intresting scissor hub in Brussels with offered passengers more connectivity. An Intresting fact worth noting is Jet also operated short-lived Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flights as well making it the first indian airline to operate to SFO.
Here comes the crisis
It is worth noting that just like the normal variants of the 777, the 777-200LR also helped the market be what it is today as it connected the furthest points between these two places. As mentioned, Air India flew Mumbai to JFK nonstop and Delta introduced one of the longest flights at the time from India beginning regular flights between Atlanta and Mumbai.
It seemed all was going well for the market as flights and capacities rose between these two markers but then the 2008 financial crisis happened which prompted a lot of airlines to pull out from the India market. The Ultra long haul routes were first to bite the dust as BOM-JFK and BOM-ATL pulled out. Soon enough, Delta took over Northwest's India operations and United Continental's India ops as it was full merger season in the US markets. American pulled out of India around the same time. Air India and Jet Airways also massively trimmed their network owing to their financial situation. After a few more somber years, the market picked up again owing to a large influx of students into the US and the arrival of fuel efficient 787s.
The Slight Re Boom
It is worth noting that although demand to the US was increasing, the demand to Canada also skyrocketed around this time due to a surge in International Students from India wanting to go to Canada post 2016. As Air India had pulled out in 2012, Jet Airways was the only indian airline to fly to Toronto, despite cutting all its US flights, via Amsterdam instead of Brussels. Soon enough, Air Canada re-entered the market with flights to Mumbai on its new 787s. United meanwhile, who was flying despite its competitors pulling out, further strengthen its position by deploying its new 777-300ER with it's New Polaris product.
Air India, with the full intent of not leaving a Slice of the Pie, launched Two of its longest flights to San Francisco and Washington DC catering to the large expat communities with the SFO flight being one of the longest of that time. As Jet Airways ceased operations, Air India relaunched Toronto to fill in the void left by the airline.
Here comes Covid
2019 came in and went seeing peak traffic on both US and Canada flights from India. Seeing this, Delta, retried it's luck in India launching flights to Mumbai from New York using its 777-200LR with the delta suites however, this route was short-lived due to the Covid pandemic.
The Covid pandemic brought in a halt to this global market as the world stopped. As Air travel slumped worse than before, Airlines in a bid of survival stopped numerous of their long haul flights which meant a number of flights to India as well. However, what came after was anticipated by none.
The Post-Covid Boom and Roadblocks
As 2021 reached its end almost reaching 2022, restrictions loosened for Air travel and airlines slowly resumed their normal flights to India, but as 2022 came around, no airline anticipated what was to come next. Air travel soared and as did the influx of International Students as once empty flights went full to the brim. As this boom happened, airlines scrambled for the piece of the pie while recovering for the pandemic. Fresh of its tata takeover with the few new 777s, Air India went all in, launching its Longest flights to San Francisco from Mumbai and Bengaluru connecting very key business and tech market especially the BLR-SFO route. They also relaunched JFK from BOM and introduced flights to Vancouver.
United also launched Delhi to San Francisco and Chicago with plans to take Air India head on on the lucrative BLR-SFO sector. American returned with the boom on the Delhi to New York sector with plans to launch Seattle to Bengaluru. Riding to the Canada boom, Air Canada launched Vancouver and Montreal from Delhi and also short lived sector to Calgary via London.
2022, despite seeing strong numbers would also see airspace restrictions due to the Russia Ukraine conflict which would bring an halt on a lot of airlines long haul plans. This now brings us to today where despite seeing record numbers, airspace restrictions and fleet constrains have got the airlines to get back on the drawing board to redo its stratergy to take maximum of the pie. Only time shall tell what the future holds as a lot of airlines are ambitious about the plans, but can they bring that out of the paper?
