Meet Air India's All-Women Crew Flying Longest Route from San Francisco to Bengaluru

An all-woman cockpit crew will fly into Indian aviation history when it operates the inaugural San Francisco-Bengaluru flight, going over the North Pole and taking the Atlantic route to reach the Karnataka capital at the other end of the world.

“This will be the longest commercial flight in the world to be operated by Air India or any other airline in India...The total flight time on this route will be of more than 17 hours depending on the wind speed on that particular day,” Air India said in a statement.

The direct distance between the two cities at opposite ends of the world is 13,993 km with a time zone change of around 13.5 hours, an Air India official said.

“Air India's woman power flies high around the world,” Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri had said on Twitter.

“All women cockpit crew consisting of Capt Zoya Aggarwal, Capt Papagari Thanmai, Capt Akansha Sonaware & Capt Shivani Manhas will operate the historic inaugural flight between Bengaluru & San Francisco,” Puri said.

Captain Zoya Aggarwal told NDTV in an interview that they will try to fly over the North Pole. However, as Aggarwal said, that would depend on a number of factors.

"This is the first time an all-women pilots team will fly over the North Pole and create a history of sorts. It’s indeed a dream come true for any professional pilot,” she also told ANI.

Flight AI176 will depart from San Francisco in the USA at 8.30 pm (local time) on Saturday and land at the Kempegowda International Airport at 3.45 am (local time) on Monday.

“Captain Zoya Aggarwal is an accomplished pilot with a flying experience of more than 8000 hrs and command experience in a B-777 aircraft of more than 10 years and more than 2500 flying hours,” the national carrier said.

In another tweet shared recently, the Air India crew can be seen discussing the logistics of the flight.

The flight will operate with a Boeing 777-200LR aircraft VT ALG with a seating capacity of 238 seats including 8 First Class, 35 Business Class,195 Economy class configuration besides four cockpit and 12 cabin crew, Air India said.

(With inputs from agencies)