Air India direct flight from Hyderabad to Chicago from Jan 15

Hyderabad is all set to get a non-stop connectivity with the United States as Air India will launch its direct flight from the city to Chicago from January 15. The national carrier will operate the flight bi-weekly, GMR-led Hyderabad International Airport announced on Wednesday. 

The airline will operate Boeing 777-200 aircraft, with a seating capacity of 238 (8 First Class + 35 Business Class + 195 Economy Class) on the route. In addition to Hyderabad-Chicago direct flight, Air India also plans to connect Bengaluru and San Francisco from next month.

Hyderabad-US-Hyderabad has been the largest unserved passenger origin and destination market between India and the US, with a potential of over 7,00,000 passengers annually. Hyderabad is a gateway to south and central India, and a preferred and the largest transit hub, said the Hyderabad airport operator.

Hyderabad offers convenient proximity for passengers originating from nearby cities like Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Rajahmundry, Bhopal, and Tirupati, pushing an additional demand of approximately 220,000 passengers annually. "This new non-stop



route was on our connectivity wish list for quite some time.

Hyderabad is second home to the US giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Google. Due to progressive measures taken by the Telangana government, investments especially from US companies in Hyderabad have increased manifold and continue to increase. The US accounts for about 70 per cent of the total IT exports from Hyderabad. The Telugu diaspora from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is one of the fastest growing community in the US. 

As per some estimates, every fourth student travelling abroad for studies from India is from these Telugu States. India is the second largest source country for foreign students going to the US each year. Meanwhile, airlines like British Airways have also resumed operations connecting Hyderabad to the UK and beyond under the Air Transport Bubble structure, while Emirates, Etihad, Fly Dubai and Air Arabia have resumed their services connecting Hyderabad to different destinations in the United Arab Emirates. Hyderabad has also been reconnected with Doha, the capital of Qatar, by Qatar Airways.