17-HOUR JOURNEY

17-HOUR JOURNEY

2 land at KIA in first flight from SFO, return after 11 hrs

All-Women Crew, Passengers Get Warm Welcome

220 Boarded Evening Flight To US

Petlee.Peter@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:12.01.2021

The all-women crew on Air India’s longest direct flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru was welcomed by an elated crowd at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in the early hours of Monday.

Two passengers who arrived in flight AI 176 in the morning grabbed eyeballs as they returned in the connecting flight — the first linking South India directly to the United States — 11 hours after landing here.

The return flight departed at 2.30pm with a different crew and 220 passengers who embarked on a 17-hour direct journey to the US.

In the afternoon, KIA’s gate number 44 was buzzing with activity as the excited passengers and crew of the first flight from Bengaluru to San Francisco gathered for a felicitation.

Businessmen Karunakar Abbireddy and Gopal Srinivasan boarded the flight to Silicon Valley after attending the event along with other flyers.

“Abbireddy had travelled to and fro in first-class. Srinivasan had flown in economy class to Bengaluru and returned in business class on AI 175. These passengers are businessmen who came to Bengaluru for their work and returned to San Francisco after spending 11 hours here,” said an Air India official.

The return flight was sent off with much fanfare after a cake-cutting ceremony attended by the four pilots and cabin crew. A total of 220 passengers with 179 in economy class, 33 in business and eight in first-class were part of the Bengaluru flight which also carried garments and computer hardware to the US, officials added.