United Airlines will launch a non-stop flight between Bengaluru and San Francisco from the summer of 2021. The American airline announced the plan on Wednesday as part of its strategy to expand its global route network with new non-stop services to India, Africa and Hawaii.
Beginning in December 2020, United will introduce a new non-stop service between Chicago and New Delhi. "For the first time ever, United customers will be able to travel non-stop between San Francisco and Bengaluru starting spring 2021,” the airline announced.
Chicago has the second-highest population of Indian-Americans in the United States and people from more than 130 U.S. cities can connect on United through O'Hare International Airport. “Service from San Francisco to Bengaluru connects two international technology hubs, broadening United's West Coast service to India, which also includes San Francisco to New Delhi.”
United has served India with non-stop service for 15 years. “It now builds on its existing service to New Delhi and Mumbai with two new routes.”
The San Francisco flight from Bengaluru is likely to be launched any time between March 20 and June 21. American Airlines had earlier announced that it would start a Bengaluru-Seattle non-stop flight from the winter of 2020. This plan, however, was postponed by a year due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
United’s announcement of the Bengaluru flight was greeted with much cheer by the Twitterati. One user tweeted, “There are more people from Karnataka in the San Francisco area with the tech industry, so it makes sense for this flight.”
Another user tweeted, “Valley to valley! This is really unexpected! Finally, this is happening. Direct flight to US from Bengaluru! Two non-stop US flights by Winter 2021! Both to the US West Coast. That is awesome! Just imagine, UA B789 and AA B789 at the same time at Bengaluru.”