Air India to Europe?
There seems to be a new kid on the block, or maybe he's been on the block for a long time, but I just haven't seen him. In the past if you were taking a long distance flight(say from NY to Vietnam), and the plane had to refuel in a third country somewhere(say Germany), you couldn't get off. There were strick regulations governing which airlines could fly where and left people on and/or off. With the Open Skies agreements that seems to be changing and we're beginning to be able to fly any airline to anywhere and from anywhere, as long as it goes to and from there.
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| Of course this is Air India Business Class and who knows, they may all be actors set up on stage in Hollywood(Bollywood?), but it sure looks like a happy group of people! | |
Air India is now advertising flights from some major US cities to some major European cities
Chicago -Frankfurt
Chicago- London
Los Angeles - Frankfurt
Newark - Paris
New York - London
Toronto - Birmingham
and showing a long list of code share airlines they work with...
Swiss(LX) 7 A330 BOM(Mumbai)-Zurich-BOM
Austrian Airlines (OS)
Singapore Airlines
Air France
Aeroflot
Emirates
Kuwait Airways
Air Mauritius
Malaysia Airlines
Lufthansa
Turkish Airlines
Thai Airways
From what I'm reading, the airline is still trying to please it's passengers and consider them an important part of their business plan. That could make for an interesting flight reminiscent of the days of past when you actually felt that the airlines liked you.
Granted their departure and destination options are fairly limited, but if you are near or able to get to one of their departure cities, it is probably worth looking into.....
With the trend of Open Skies spreading throughout the world the options of which airline flies where will open up significantly. At present most aiirlines can only fly from their home country direct to another country, but with international agreements being signed any airline will be able to fly between any two countries(if the airline thinks it's profitable enough)! Air India is the one airline I know about right now with flights to Europe, but there may be others that I don't know about and certainly others are sure to follow soon.
Good Luck!