FREMONT, CA: Air India, India’s national carrier, hosted their annual appreciation dinner for travel agents at Sakoon Restaurant, Fremont on Friday November 10. The event was hosted by Pradeep Ganatra, Manager West Coast, Air India, Neelaj Sharma, District Sales Manager and their team from San Francisco. Over 80 members of the Indian travel agents fraternity of Northern California attended the evening. Sky Bird travels and tours, GTT, Maazda Travel and Travex agency were awarded for their exceptional service.
Talking at the event, Pradeep Ganatra, Manager West Coast, Air India thanked all the agents and media for their support to make Air India’s US operations a profitable sector for the carrier.
In December 2015, Air India launched a flight between Delhi and San Francisco, which is their furthest route yet. Then several months ago they doubled capacity on the route, as it has gone from operating 3x weekly to operating 6x weekly. As of now, Air India flies non-stop services to New York, Newark, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington in the US.
It also has a one-stop service to New York from Ahmedabad via London. Three of these services-New Delhi-San Francisco, New Delhi-Washington and Ahmedabad-New York via London-have been launched in less than last two years.
The national carrier also plans to fly to other destinations in the US, such as Los Angeles and Houston among others. Air India’s operations to the US account for 20% of the total revenue of the national carrier.
Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service