International Flights Between India-US Starts: Know These Biggest Changes For All Passengers From India, USA

International flights and regular operations will resume from March 27. 

Hence, many airlines are gearing up to restart operations to and from India. 

Read on to learn about new developments that could impact travelers.

New Routes

United Airlines and American Airlines will launch nonstop flights to Bangalore from the US.

United Airlines’ SFO to BLR route, and American Airlines’ Seattle to BLR route which was subject to pandemic related restrictions will restart from May and October 2022 respectively.

Service Frequency

After the government’s announcement of restarting regular international civil flights, Emirates flights to India will also return to pre-pandemic frequency in a graded manner.

Air Canada will operate 21 weekly return flights to Delhi from Canada.

Lufthansa and Swiss International Airlines will double their flights to Delhi and Mumbai after March end.

Lufthansa will increase the weekly frequency of its flights to Bangalore and Chennai.

Other global airlines that will go back to their pre-pandemic schedule for India are Delta Airlines, Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic.

Turkish Airlines will also resume operations following March 27.

It connects Ahmedabad with 12 destinations in the US.

International Airfares

One might posit a price drop in international airfares due to normalisation of flights along with competition from other airlines.

However, the opposite may be more likely- prices go up.

The geopolitical situation has driven the aviation turbine fuel (ATF) cost to an all-time high.

Fet fuel accounts for nearly 40% of an airline’s operating expenses.

As a result,  international flight tickets stay high for the near future.

Tourist Visas

Starting from March 16, the government of India restored all long-term valid tourist visas for the nationals and citizens of 156 countries, including the United States.

Long-duration tourist visas, paper (regular) and electronic, had been suspended for entry to India since March 2020.