Air India bummer: After end to non-stop flights between Bengaluru and San Francisco, what options do passengers have?

Air India will stop non-stop services between Bengaluru and San Francisco at the end of February 2026, disconnecting the Silicon Valley and the IT capital of the world from the Silicon Valley of India. In February 2020, American Airlines announced that it would connect Seattle with Bengaluru starting in October that year. Within weeks, almost the entire world went into a lockdown. In the midst of the pandemic, United Airlines announced its longest flight yet between San Francisco and Bengaluru, starting in 2021. Both never took off; instead, Air India, then a government-owned airline, launched flights between the two IT hubs in January 2021 under the air bubble agreement. The route was suspended in early 2022, but the Russia-Ukraine war continued, and seeing American carriers stay away from the Russian airspace, along with additional airworthy planes, Air India relaunched the route.

For the 12 months ending September, a little under 1,50,000 passengers flew between the two cities (both ways included). Air India offers thrice-a-week service on this route currently, with 344 seats on offer across First (four), Business (35 seats) and Economy (305 seats) per flight. Air India carried close to 14,000 passengers (two way) on this route in the July-September quarter, and over 63,000 passengers for 12 months ending September 2025, or about 43% of the total traffic, with the rest opting for one-stop options.

Why did Air India stop Bengaluru-San Francisco flights?

At the heart of the issue is the lack of planes. Bengaluru-San Francisco is one of the longest routes in the world, with B777-200LR being the aircraft of choice when the route started. Air India had three legacy B777-200LRs in its fleet and was augmented with five more former Delta Air Lines B777-200LRs. All legacy ones and two former Delta planes are not out of the fleet. The airline could not extend the leases for the same. The former Delta planes were a favourite with the passengers as they had significantly better interiors and experience as compared to the legacy Air India B777s. After April 2025, when Pakistani airspace is closed for Indian operators, Air India has been taking a technical stop (to refuel) for flights to San Francisco. Currently, the Bengaluru-San Francisco flight operates via Delhi, while the return takes a halt in Kolkata. Not only does this add time, taking away the benefit of a non-stop flight, but it also makes it less attractive for passengers and costlier for the airline as it involves one more landing and take-off.

The Bengaluru-San Francisco route is a hit among IT professionals and VFR traffic (Visiting Friends and Relatives) since old parents visiting families in the Bay Area can effortlessly fly without transferring at major hubs in Europe, which is the other way of reaching San Francisco.

What options do passengers have now?

Air India is pulling out of flights from Mumbai and Bengaluru, but augmenting service from Delhi, increasing it to 10 times a week from the current seven. Passengers flying from Bengaluru are offered a two-way connection via Delhi. However, while the current operation sees a halt in Delhi, the immigration process is completed in Bengaluru, which will not be the case post-March 2026. On the outbound, passengers from Bengaluru will fly one-stop via Delhi, the return would see passengers having a technical halt at Vienna, followed by Delhi, where they will need to complete immigration and customs formalities before connecting to Bengaluru.

This opens up opportunities for carriers from Europe, like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Air France, and KLM, which have flights to Bengaluru and operations to San Francisco with connections at their hubs in Europe. This also helps Emirates and Qatar Airways, which are considered better hubs to transfer over European ones by many passengers. Lufthansa has augmented capacity to Bengaluru post-pandemic with flights from Munich.

Next month will see Air India complete four years under the Tata group, and its expansion does not seem to have gone as per what it would have desired, partly because of the supply chain issues delaying deliveries. But it will be time to introspect for the airline.

Tail Note

Pakistan has been extending the airspace closure for one month at a time. One wonders if it would be available anytime soon. With the expansion plan of carriers from India, especially Air India being strong, will Indian carriers have to invest in something similar to Project Sunrise, which Qantas had undertaken to ensure it can fly non-stop from Sydney and Melbourne to points in Europe and the UK. It comes at a cost, and the passengers should then be able to afford the pricing, which gets passed on to the end consumer.

All eyes are now on the Russia-Ukraine war. If it stops soon, it will give United an opportunity to fly to Bengaluru, which it cannot do without using the Russian airspace or taking a stop. If that happens, a market that Air India built will be handed out on a platter.

The author, Ameya Joshi, is an aviation analyst.