Air India (AI), India’s Tata Group-owned flag carrier, currently operates nonstop transatlantic services to four cities in the United States: John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York; Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), New Jersey; O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago; and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), California.
These flights depart from three Indian gateways, two of which make some of the busiest domestic routes in the world: Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL), New Delhi; Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM), Mumbai; and Kempegowda International Airport (BLR), Bengaluru.
A fifth US destination, Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), served by DEL, has been suspended since 1 September 2025, following the airline’s own press release citing a planned fleet shortfall driven by a Boeing 787-8 retrofit programme and the ongoing closure of Pakistani airspace to Indian carriers. The suspension is the most consequential reduction in Air India’s US network since the pandemic, and it remains in effect with no confirmed reinstatement date beyond the 2026 summer schedule.
 The United States hosts one of the world’s largest Indian diaspora communities — estimated at over 4.4 million people — and the India–US corridor consistently ranks among the highest-yielding longhaul city pairs globally. Air India’s post-Vistara network now reaches nearly 90 destinations across 33 countries, with Star Alliance membership extending its reach further to approximately 1,200 destinations worldwide through partners including Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and United Airlines.
Air India’s Active Nonstop US Routes In 2026
Air India operates some of the longest Airbus A350 routes in the world, and these include the ones we are going to discuss. The US routes depart from DEL on all four corridors, from BOM to JFK, EWR, and SFO, and from BLR to SFO only.
Delhi–New York JFK: Air India has served DEL–JFK since 1993, making it one of the airline’s oldest transatlantic routes. American Airlines (AA) is the only other carrier offering nonstop service on the Delhi–New York route, having entered the market in 2021. According to OAG booking data, approximately 48% of American’s JFK–Delhi passengers connected onward from cities including Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Charlotte, and Chicago Air India operates a Boeing 777-300ER on this sector, which has a block time of approximately 14 hours 45 minutes westbound.
Delhi–Newark: United Airlines (UA) competes directly with Air India on the DEL–EWR corridor, and the route has long been one of the most commercially competitive in the India–US market. Newark functions as Air India’s primary East Coast gateway for passengers connecting northward into New England or south towards the mid-Atlantic states. A codeshare agreement between Air India and United Airlines allows passengers to book seamlessly across both carriers’ networks.
Delhi–Chicago O’Hare: Air India first established the DEL–ORD air bridge on 31 October 2011 and has maintained the service since, primarily catering to the Indian diaspora concentrated in the greater Chicago metropolitan area. The route uses a Boeing 777-300ER. Chicago’s Indian community is one of the ten largest in the United States, and the VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives) segment drives significant demand throughout the year, peaking during Diwali and the northern hemisphere summer months.
Delhi–San Francisco, Mumbai–San Francisco, and Bengaluru–San Francisco: SFO is Air India’s West Coast anchor and its most multi-origin destination. DEL–SFO is served with a Boeing 777-200LR (Long Range), while BOM–SFO and BLR–SFO are operated with the same aircraft type on a frequency that has historically been three times weekly from Mumbai. The Bengaluru–San Francisco service is Air India’s longest nonstop flight, spanning approximately 8,600 nautical miles and lasting roughly 16–17 hours.
Mumbai–JFK and Mumbai–Newark: Both services position Mumbai as Air India’s secondary US gateway, serving the commercial capital’s large business-travel and diaspora communities. BOM–EWR operates on a Boeing 777-300ER — a 342-seat, three-class aircraft configured with four First, 35 Business, and 303 Economy seats — while BOM–JFK uses the Boeing 777-200LR.
Why Washington Dulles Is Suspended and What Passengers Should Know
The suspension of the DEL–IAD route from 1 September 2025 is the most disruptive single change to Air India’s US network in recent years. In its official press release, Air India stated the suspension is primarily driven by the planned shortfall in Air India’s fleet, as the airline commenced retrofitting 26 of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft” and that this necessitates “a prolonged unavailability of multiple aircraft at any given time until at least end of 2026“.
The airline added that the simultaneous closure of Pakistani airspace to Indian carriers — in effect since late April 2025 — compounds the problem by stretching flight times on US-bound routes by as much as three hours, requiring additional fuel stops and increasing crew duty obligations.
Ahead of the suspension, the route had already been restructured from a nonstop service to a routing via Vienna International Airport (VIE), reflecting how severely the Pakistani airspace ban had degraded the DEL–IAD corridor’s commercial and operational viability. Travel Weekly reported that Air India reduced the Washington frequency from five to three weekly operations following the Ahmedabad crash in June 2025 — a sequence of compounding factors that ultimately made the route unsustainable through the retrofit period.
For passengers who relied on the direct DEL–IAD service, no other carrier currently offers a nonstop alternative. Air India has directed passengers to connect via JFK, EWR, ORD, or SFO with onward services on partner carriers including Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines. Washington-area passengers should monitor Air India’s schedule filings on AeroRoutes and the airline’s own booking system; the airline did not file schedules for IAD beyond 28 March 2026 in initial winter filings, suggesting reinstatement is contingent on the pace of the 787-retrofit programme.
Air India’s Planned Expansion at Dallas, Los Angeles, And the Cities That Could Come Next
Air India has publicly signalled its intention to expand its US network — but the pace of that expansion is contingent on the arrival of new widebody aircraft. Staff were transferred from SFO to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in preparation for a new Los Angeles service, and that Air India began recruiting staff in Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) ahead of a planned Texas launch.
Neither route has been formally announced as of May 2026, but industry analysts see DFW and LAX as highly probable next additions given their large Indian diaspora catchment areas and strong business travel demand.
Indian Eagle’s analysis of US–India route developments for 2026 noted that Air India “is likely to introduce Chicago to Mumbai and Dallas to Delhi/Mumbai in its international network after the airline receives new aircraft and existing aircraft cabins are refurbished“, suggesting a Chicago–Mumbai corridor — not served by any carrier nonstop — as another potential addition.
Seattle, Houston, Atlanta, and Boston have each been evaluated internally by the airline over the past two years; all carry significant Indian diaspora populations that currently lack direct Air India connectivity. The timeline for any of these launches, however, remains dependent on the delivery pace of the 787-9 fleet and the completion of the 787-8 retrofit programme.
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