BENGALURU: With 220 passengers on board, the first non-stop flight from Bengaluru to San Francisco took to the skies at 3.09 pm. Air India's AI 175 was supposed to take off at 2.30 pm and the reason for the delay is still not known.
A minor celebration was held by Air India before boarding could take place at Boarding Gate no. 44 to mark the milestone. "A delicious cake was cut in the presence of passengers and distributed to all to celebrate the launch," said an Air india official. Chanappa Venkatdas Madhu, a native of Bengaluru with 10,000 hours of flying experience, and flight commander of the maiden flight was accorded the honour of slicing the cake. Apart from four cockpit crew, there are 12 cabin crew, the official added.
There were eight First Class passengers, 33 Business Class and 179 Economy class passengers on board today. Interestingly two passengers, SrInivasan Gopal and Abbireddy Karunaker came all the way from San Francisco to Bengaluru by morning flight and returned to SFO by the afternoon flight. "What Ramaswamy did is very unique. He came by Business Class both ways. Karunaker came by Economy and went by first class," the official said.
Rajkumar Ramaswamy, a first class passenger was the first passenger to step into the flight.
After covering nearly 14,000 kms and flying above the North Pole again, it is slated to reach SFO 16.5 hours later.
Bangalore International Airport Limited CEO Hari Marar said, “It is a historic day for us at Bengaluru Airport as we now have a non-stop route that connects two cities renowned for their technology prowess across the world. This fulfils a long pending demand of Bangaloreans and I am confident that this new route will further transform Bengaluru by connecting people and businesses."
Executive Director Commercial, Air India, Melvin De Souza and Marar were present before the take-off.