PM Modi's parting gift to Silicon Valley - a direct flight to India

San Jose: After he had finished his power-packed hour-long speech at California's SAP Centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to the mic and said, "Oh I forgot to share one good news."

The PM then announced national carrier Air India's New Delhi-San Francisco non-stop flight. "It will fly three times a week," the PM said to thunderous applause.

Air India will launch the direct flight to San Francisco from December 2 this year, fulfilling a long-pending demand of Indian IT professionals who work in the USA's West Coast. The flight was announced yesterday to coincide with PM Modi's two-day visit to the Silicon Valley.

"We are launching a direct non-stop flight to the San Francisco on December 2 as there was a demand for it," Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani said on Sunday.

San Francisco will be the national carrier's fourth destination in the United States after New York, Newark and Chicago, where it operates daily non-stop flights.

The Boeing 777-200 LR (Long



Range) flight, to be operated on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, will have a convenient early morning departure and arrival. Similarly, the return flight would depart early morning from San Francisco and arrive in Delhi in the afternoon.

Air India officials said the flight will make travel to the West Coast easy and convenient for students, NRIs and business travellers looking for direct options to connect with India.

The new flight would connect passengers from the Indian cities of Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune and Bhubaneswar.

The Prime Minister is on a five-day tour to the USA. After two days in New York, he flew to the West Coast, the first Indian PM to visit the Silicon Valley - global hub for innovation and technology - in 33 years.

PM Modi met CEOs of tech giants and also visited the Facebook and Google headquarters. He flew back to New York today where he will attend a peacekeeping summit hosted by US President Barack Obama.