Faster and efficient: AI flies Dreamliner for Delhi-Washington direct

NEW DELHI: The only non-stop flight between Delhi and Washington has just got quicker. Air India has shaved off over 15 minutes from its direct flight between the two capitals that usually has a flying time of up to 16 hours.
The airline started using its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on this route instead of the Boeing 777s, which has been in uses for direct routes between India and US for over decade.
“This is a faster aircraft (than the B777). Our Delhi-Washington route is possibly the longest non-stop for this version of the Dreamliner (B787-8) and consumes 50 tons of fuel less on each flight than the bigger B777 used earlier on this route,” said an AI official. The first non-stop on Delhi-Washington route using the Dreamliner was this Wednesday (January 8).
AI’s Delhi-Washington thrice weekly, the only direct flight on this route, usually has fewer paying passengers than its other US non-stops to Chicago, New York, Newark and San Francisco (SFO). So it decided to use the 256-seater B787-8.
“While going to Washington, we can take only up to 220 passengers due to load penalty (meaning carry lesser passengers, cargo and more fuel for the journey within the maximum take off weight of an aircraft). Still the fuel saving of 50 tons per flight makes it a more viable option for us. On the way back to India, we can carry full load of passengers,” said an AI official.
At Rs 60,000 per ton, the fuel saving on each flight is Rs 30 lakh. On an yearly basis, AI can save over Rs 50 crore with this fuel saving on the Washington route. “The B777 used on Delhi-Washington is now being used for the high density Delhi-London route that will lead to an annual incremental revenue of Rs 50 crore. So the overall annual benefit of this route is about Rs 100 crore,” the official added.
AI uses the 342-seater Boeing 777-300 extended range (ER) for flights between India and the east coast of US and the 238-seater B777-200 long range (LR) for the west coast (SFO). The airline deploys its 256-seater Dreamliner 787-8 on direct flights between India and Europe, Australia and far east. On some rare occasions, it deploys the B777 ER on Delhi-SFO route.
The Dreamliner’s B787-9 version is used by North American carriers to fly direct between India and SFO/New York/Vancouver. But the B787-8 version will be used only by AI for India-US non-stop.