Air India direct flight from city to Chicago from Jan 15

Hyderabad: Hyderabad is all set to get a non-stop connectivity with the United States as Air India will launch its direct flight from the city to Chicago from January 15. The national carrier will operate the flight bi-weekly, GMR-led Hyderabad International Airport announced on Wednesday.

The airline will operate Boeing 777-200 aircraft, with a seating capacity of 238 (8 First Class + 35 Business Class + 195 Economy Class) on the route. In addition to Hyderabad-Chicago direct flight, Air India also plans to connect Bengaluru and San Francisco from next month.

Hyderabad-US-Hyderabad has been the largest unserved passenger origin and destination market between India and the US, with a potential of over 7,00,000 passengers annually. Hyderabad is a gateway to south and central India, and a preferred and the largest transit hub, said the Hyderabad airport operator.

Hyderabad offers convenient proximity for passengers originating from nearby cities like Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Rajahmundry, Bhopal, and Tirupati, pushing an additional demand of approximately 220,000 passengers annually. "This new non-stop route was on our connectivity wish list for quite some time.

And we are delighted that it is our very own national carrier that has commenced this service," said Pradeep Panicker, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. He said that the launch of this route brings two destinations closer for all passengers who have been waiting eagerly for such a direct flight. He said that they were constantly working on linking more cities on domestic and international routes.

Hyderabad is second home to the US giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Google. Due to progressive measures taken by the Telangana government, investments especially from US companies in Hyderabad have increased manifold and continue to increase. The US accounts for about 70 per cent of the total IT exports from Hyderabad.

The Telugu diaspora from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is one of the fastest growing community in the US. As per some estimates, every fourth student travelling abroad for studies from India is from these Telugu States. India is the second largest source country for foreign students going to the US each year.

Meanwhile, airlines like British Airways have also resumed operations connecting Hyderabad to the UK and beyond under the Air Transport Bubble structure, while Emirates, Etihad, Fly Dubai and Air Arabia have resumed their services connecting Hyderabad to different destinations in the United Arab Emirates. Hyderabad has also been reconnected with Doha, the capital of Qatar, by Qatar Airways.