National carrier Air India flagged off its first service from San Francisco to Bengaluru on Saturday, which was piloted by an all-women cockpit crew. As per a statement issued by the airline, "The flight will be operated by an all-women cockpit crew of Capt Zoya Aggarwal (P1), Capt Papagari Thanmai (P1), Capt Akansha Sonaware (P2) and Capt Shivani Manhas (P2)." In addition to this, Air India has also tabled to start its first-ever non-stop service between Hyderabad and Chicago from January 15.

Connecting the opposite ends of the world

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Geographically set at opposite ends of the world, diametrically, San Francisco and Bengaluru share a distance of approximately 13,9993-km with a time zone change of about 13.5 hours. According to the airline's statement, this new service which took off on Saturday, will be the longest commercial flight in the world to be operated by Air India or any other airline in India.

Ahead of departure, the airline had also stated that the flight will clock more than 17 hours in transit, where the real-time wind speed would factor as a key-influence, thus, mapping a route that is the safest, fastest and most economical. Further, this 'round the world' service would be based on wind speed and other logistical parameters. The airline had even mentioned that the flight may path through the polar route, which will result in savings on flying time, fuel consumption and curbing carbon footprints.

As per the official statement, this service 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 configurations, besides 4 cockpits and 12 cabin crew.

All-Women Cockpit Crew

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India's longest commercial flight was captained by an all-women cockpit crew, comprising of two pairs of Pilot 1 and Pilot 2, who were slated to take alternative turns to complete the trip.

Earlier this air passenger carrier had stated, "Air India is engaging an all-women cockpit crew for this flight. Air India has the highest women employee ratio for an airline in the world. Capt Nivedita Bhasin, Executive Director (Flight Safety), Air India, is also travelling on this flight."

This is a big step forward for the airlines which was working with a crutched service all these months, due to the outbreak of the pandemic. At present, Air India operates non-stop flights from Delhi to New York, Newark, Washington DC, San Francisco and Chicago and from Mumbai to Newark and New York.