New Delhi: Air India’s maiden flight on the transpacific route took 14 hours and 30 minutes to cover 15,300 km from Delhi to San Francisco landed it straight into the record books for operating the world’s longest non-stop flight.
Official sources said the flight took off at 4 am from Delhi on October 16, crossed the international dateline and landed at its destination at 6.30 am local time on October 16. The four pilots, captains Rajneesh Sharma, Gautam Verma, MA Khan and SM Palekar, and the 10 cabin crew members who operated the first Delhi-SFO flight over the Pacific are ecstatic at setting this record.
The flight also marked the 84th anniversary of the airline on October 15. On October 14, the carrier reported an operating profit of Rs 105 crore, nearly 10 years after merging with Indian Airlines. The state-owned carrier said a nearly 31% drop in fuel costs was the primary reason for the positive numbers.
At 13,900km, the Atlantic route of AI’s Delhi-SFO nonstop flight made it the world’s second-longest after Emirates’ Dubai-Auckland (14,120km). Now, AI’s Pacific route will remain the world’s longest nonstop for two years, till Singapore Airlines launches the mother of all direct flights-Singapore-New York, that will cover 16,500km in 19 hours.
