Coimbatore : Travel to the West, particularly to the US from Coimbatore has always been a tedious process due to many factors, with carrying heavy luggage being the primary issue.
Coimbatore : Travel to the West, particularly to the US from Coimbatore has always been a tedious process due to many factors, with carrying heavy luggage being the primary issue.
Air India has now made the sojourn much more easier and convenient for US travellers from Coimbatore.
Air India has a one-stop facility to the US from the Coimbatore International airport and is currently operating 36 non stop flights a week between India and the US. The Air India flight from Coimbatore starts at 15.05 hours from Coimbatore and lands in New Delhi at 19.50 hours. From New Delhi between 1.30 to 3.30 a.m five flights depart to five different US cities. Schedule of Flights landing at the US cities- Newark- 6.45 a.m, San Francisco- 7.00 a.m, New York- 7.00 a.m, Chicago- 7.15 a.m and Washington- 7.20 a.m.
On the return side flights from various U.S cities are scheduled to depart between 11.00 to 14.30 U.S time which will reach New Delhi between 14.00 hrs to 16.00 hrs IST the next day. The passengers travelling to Coimbatore can board the flight at 19.00 hrs and reach Coimbatore at 21.45 hrs.
According to an industrialist from Coimbatore, "A passenger travelling to the US can board the Air India flight at Coimbatore, check in the luggage at Coimbatore airport and that is it. They can get down at the International terminal at New Delhi, and since Air India has the same terminal for US flights, they will just have to clear immigration check and board the US flight. No hassles of carrying luggage or getting a separate boarding pass. Air India has made travel to the US very comfortable now, from the Coimbatore International airport."
"The United States market is very strong and strategically very important to Air India, who in the last rolling 12-month period for which data is available handled some 8,60,000 bookings (17 percent share) placing them second only to the market leader, Emirates, who handled close to 10 lakh bookings (19 percent share), whilst United Airlines which is the only US-based airline operating direct services handled some 380,000 bookings and secured a 7 percent share,” states OAG, a UK-based international travel intelligence company.
"Air India has made travel comfortable for its passengers in every possible way. The Air India Lounge in DEL T3 is perhaps one of the finer aspects of “flying with the Maharaja." The lounge is clean, has plenty of seating, a good dining buffet and showers to refresh after a long flight. Food quality, as far as I could tell, was pretty good with excellent service. The lounge still lags behind the Hyderabad Plaza Premium Lounge in overall quality, but kudos to Air India for trying to make it a mostly premium experience," opines a frequent traveller.
