Air India to fly over North Pole on San Francisco route
Air India is set to chalk up a new milestone with its upcoming flight launch to San Francisco.
It becomes the first Indian airline to fly over the North Pole region when its maiden SFO flight takles off later this week.
The airline says taking the Polar flight path will save fuel and reduce emissions.
The route launches on August 15 from New Delhi.
"Passengers will benefit from the reduced fuel consumption and a better environment from the reduced carbon emissions," said Air India western region director Mukesh Bhatia.
However the polar route also presents some challenges.
"There are limited choices for diversion to alternative airports, solar radiation, fuel freezing, and aircraft retrieval in case of diversions, are some specific factors requiring active mitigation," Bhatia added.
To deal with this the airline has taken on a specialist diversion support agency to assist with diversions.
It has secured special approvals from Indian regulator DGCA as well as the US Federal Aviation Administration.
This includes specific ‘Polar Operations’ guidelines on crew training and weather monitoring.
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