United Airlines is making some major changes to its Indian route network.
It started with the drop of plans to serve Bangalore, a hotly anticipated route that was originally supposed to launch in spring 2021.
The airline has delayed its San Francisco to Bangalore route several times since then. It was announced in September 2020, but currently the route is being completely cut before it begins, Cirium’s schedule shows.
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A spokesperson for United confirmed to TPG that the airline would drop its plans to serve Bangalore – the city some call India’s Silicon Valley.
Along with dropping Bangalore, United will switch existing routes to New Delhi.
Last winter, the airline flew there from Chicago and Newark. Back in 2022, it also served New Delhi from San Francisco.
Originally, United had planned three routes to New Delhi for the upcoming winter, but that plan changed over the weekend, according to Cirium’s schedule.
Instead of offering daily service from Chicago and Newark during the winter, United will merge into two daily flights from Newark. (The daily San Francisco route is not affected.)
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The twice-daily flights from Newark to New Delhi will commence on October 28 and run until March 29, 2024. Flights will operate on the following schedule eastbound:
- United Flight 816 departed Newark at 9:40 am and arrived in New Delhi at 10:10 am the next day.
- United Flight 82 departs Newark at 10:15pm and arrives in New Delhi at 9:50pm the next day.
According to the previous schedule, United’s flights to Chicago and Newark departed in the evening. So, consolidating service to Newark allows the airline to offer two different flight times that are likely to appeal to different types of travelers.
All United flights to New Delhi are operated by 257-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamlinerincluding Polaris Business Class, Premium Plus, Economy Plus and Economy Class cabins.
United is the largest US airline serving India. Delta Air Lines does not currently fly to the country and American only operates one the only daily route from New York to New Delhi.
Meanwhile, United offers multiple daily flights to New Delhi, as well as daily service to Mumbai.
Bangalore is a roadmap that United announced during the pandemic’s deepest in September 2020. Some industry observers see the move as a response to American’s plan to target also add Bangalore service — an announcement made in February 2020 as part of a larger plan to transform Seattle into an international gateway hub to the West Coast.
American has never finished deploying flights from Seattle to Bangalore, and it currently has no plans to fly to the Indian mall.
It seems that corporate business trips are slow to return (especially from the likes of Microsoft, Apple, and other big tech companies), as well as The Russian invasion and the ensuing war in Ukraine, and close the respective airspace which means West Coast flights to Bangalore may no longer be commercially viable. (United declined to comment on roadmap changes.)
If you want to fly non-stop from the US to Bangalore, India’s national carrier Air India currently offers three flights per week from San Francisco on a Boeing 777-200LR, or long-range aircraft.
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