With Pakistani airspace unexpectedly re-opened, United will resume flights to India earlier than originally planned.
Yesterday, I wrote about United’s decision to delay the resumption of its service to India until late October. There, I suggested that aircraft had likely been re-allocated for other missions and therefore United was unlikely to modify the October 26th restart date.
Well, I was wrong. United will restart India service nearly two months earlier than planned.
After reviewing and re-evaluating plans, our network operations and planning teams have determined that we will resume daily nonstop service between New York/Newark and Delhi and Mumbai on September 6, 2019 (eastbound). We are excited to get back to connecting our customers and employees between the U.S. and India in September, and we’re looking forward to starting brand new service between San Francisco and Delhi in December.
Effective 06 September (to India) and 07 September (from India)
New York/Newark (EWR) – Mumbai (BOM)
- EWR-BOM: Depart 2010 Arrive 2050 (next day)
- BOM-EWR: Depart 2320 Arrive 0530 (next day)
- Aircraft type: Boeing 777-300
- Frequency: Daily (Year-round)
New York/Newark (EWR) – Delhi (DEL)
- EWR-DEL: Depart 2205 Arrive 2130 (next day)
- DEL-EWR: Depart 2335 Arrive 0455 (next day)
- Aircraft type: Boeing 777-200
- Frequency: Daily (Year-round)
Brand new service between San Francisco and Delhi begins 05 December 2019
- SFO-DEL: 1915-0045 (two days later)
- DEL-SFO: 0350-0600 (same day)
- Aircraft type: Boeing 787-9
- Frequency: Daily (Seasonal)
- Start Dates (unchanged): 05 December (To India) 07 December (From India)
CONCLUSION
I was a bit apprehensive that United was going to use the airspace closure issue to further prolong resuming flights to India. This news puts those fears to rest.
United told me:
Our Customer Service team will be reaching out to customers who may have cancelled or rescheduled their travel in the last 24 hours with information about the newly announced service date as well as to offer new booking options.
If you have recently cancelled or rescheduled your travel to India, give United a day or two to call you. If you were rebooked on a connecting option, you will have the chance to return to a nonstop flight to/from Newark.
This is awesome news Matthew! UA48/49 were awesome for someone like me who flies to BOM monthly from the States. The new coach seats in the 777-300 are very cramped but premium plus is attainable for not that much extra and the flight timings are much better than other flights which land or take off in the middle of the night in Mumbai.
Hi Matthew,
Is it confirmed that United is firm on resuming Delhi flights from Sept 6th? Or there is still speculation.
Yes, confirmed.
Hi Mathew,
Do you have any insight that American is starting Delhi/Mumbai direct flight soon?
Not going to happen (my prediction). I think it would have been announced two weeks ago.