This Airline Saved More Time Despite Increasing The Distance Of The Flight By Over 1000KM
It also managed to cut down on the amount of fuel it used during the flight.
By Sadho Ram — 22 Oct 2016, 11:44 AM
In these modern times when it's getting harder by day to save time, imagine an airline saving more than 2 hours of its flight time despite taking an over 1000km longer route. It seems an unlikely scenario.
But that's exactly what Air India, India's national carrier, recently did!
According to Flightradar24.com, an Air India flight, flying from New Delhi to San Francisco, adjusted the routing of its Delhi—San Francisco flight to increase the distance of the flight by over 1000 kilometres.
While doing so, the airline actually saved 2 hours and 15 minutes of flying time!
But how?
A simple, single word answer to that is wind!
As Flightradar24.com explains:
"Prior to this week, Air India's flights between Delhi and San Francisco took a polar routing in both directions, flying north from Delhi over the North Pole and south through Canada. From 15 October onward, flight 173 is flying east from Delhi through China and over the North Pacific Ocean to take advantage of the Jet Stream, the high-altitude, fast-moving air used by other flights crossing the Pacific."
Taking advantage of the tailwind offered by the jet stream also helped the airline cut the amount of fuel it used during the flight
If you're wondering why Air India couldn't do this earlier, it's because the national carrier didn't have the permission to operate on the NOPAC and PACOTS tracks that cross the Pacific Ocean. However, Air India made the change after it received approval from India's Director General of Civil Aviation recently.