“Air India cancelling San Francisco to Mumbai and Bengaluru flights starting March 2026, is in the news today. Travelers hit the panic button over their bookings for travel to India in 2026. We are experiencing an influx of queries, like when Air India would resume these routes, when they would be able to book these routes for their parents’ convenient travel on Air India,” said Dheeraj Dhuvvuru, CEO of IndianEagle.com.
The Air India news trending online is not true. In fact, Air India will continue to operate from SFO to Bengaluru and Mumbai through 2026, but flights are no longer nonstop or point to point. In fact, Air India flights from SFO to Mumbai and Bengaluru stopped being nonstop when Pakistan closed its airspace for Indian airlines in April 2025. For the past 9 months, Air India has been making route adjustments to bypass the restricted airspace and rerouting these flights with short fueling stops in Vienna or Kolkata (CCU).
Air India flights to and from San Francisco in 2026
San Francisco to Mumbai has one-stop or two-stop operations in Air India’s 2026 schedule. In some itineraries, Alaska Airlines being an interline partner will connect to Air India flights from New York JFK to Mumbai. In some itineraries, Air India will operate this long-haul route via Kolkata and Delhi as short layovers (1 to 2 hours each). The flight from SFO to Kolkata, and from Kolkata to DEL Airport is the same, AI 174 (B777-300ER). It means no aircraft change, no deboarding at CCU Airport. The leg from New Delhi to Mumbai (final destination) involves aircraft change.
Air India flights from SFO to Bengaluru will continue to have two pitstops – Kolkata and Delhi – in 2026. But AI flights, BLR to SFO, are one-stop itineraries via New Delhi Airport. To be precise, nonstop travel from San Francisco to Mumbai and Bengaluru is a thing of the past. Domestic layovers are common in Air India’s international operations.
With Mumbai or Bengaluru being your final destination, Air India will be flying through New Delhi, one of the two domestic pitstops for flights originating in San Francisco. There is not only aircraft change but also terminal change at Delhi IGI Airport. You need to transfer from Terminal 3 to T2 at DEL Airport for domestic connection to Mumbai or Bengaluru.
Are Air India flights from SFO to Delhi nonstop?
Since Air India is rerouting flights from San Francisco over Mongolian airspace between Russia and China, it has changed the course of SFO-DEL itineraries, which include a short refueling stop in Kolkata. There is no deboarding of passengers for aircraft or terminal change at Kolkata Airport during a layover of up to 1.5 hours.
Luckily, most of Air India flights from New Delhi to San Francisco are nonstop, and total travel time is 17 hours. B777-200LRs from Air India’s fleet will operate this route with fuel efficiency, spacious cabins, flat-bed seating (in Business Class), and other modern features.
Alternate options to Air India for SFO to India travel
Though the flying time from SFO to Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi has increased by 8 to 10 hours due to domestic pitstops, many Indians still prefer Air India over other airlines due to no international transit. If you’re looking for alternate options to Air India flights from SFO to India, you can check out Indian Eagle deals from other airlines or call +1800-615-3969 for phone-only budget deals. By the way, don’t give a miss to our Christmas-special flight discount coupons for your travel in 2026.
I agreed
What about ORD to Hyderabad direct non-stop flights ? We are facing lot of inconvenience landing in Delhi and taking the domestic flight to Hyderabad.
Hi Margaret! Chicago to Hyderabad nonstop flight is a distant reality. By the way, what inconvenience you are facing at Delhi Airport? If you kindly share in brief..
What about jfk or ewr (new jersey) to atq (amritsar). There used to be Qatar flight from Jfk to doha to amritsar. Is this still available, it shows online but is it true and no extra stops for this?
Hi John! IndianEagle.com has Qatar Airways itineraries with one-stop flight from JFK to Amritsar via Doha.
One of the biggest inconveniences and the reason many people travelling to cities other than Delhi while coming from America is collecting check-in baggage and then checking them back in. This is a very time taking and frustrating process. Prior to covid, if I was travelling from Chicago to Hyd via Del, I would only collect my check-in luggage at Hyderabad I never had to collect it in Delhi and recheck it in and go through domestic security check process again.
If you were travelling with etihad or emirates the transit process is much simpler. I hope Indian authorities make this transit process simple so that I will actually look forward to using AI flight again in the future. For now I don’t want to deal with this BS unless i don’t have any other options.
air india is horrible, TATA marketing gimmick is over!
expensive fare, badly maintained equipment unprofessional staff
unreliable and unpredictable we should avoid risking flying with one of the worst airline in the industry
Travelling with Air India to hyd via delhi is a nightmare. It is been 3 years since TATA has taken over. Hefty price, poor quality of service, transfer of luggage is pain in Bxxx. I stopped flying through Air India, when they ripped me with a $2800 one way, and gave me a IRCTC food/service.Lesson learnt with patriotism.
I think there is less incentive to take AI flights from US to India with it requiring another stop. Better off taking one stop via Singapore, Emirates, Qatar, Etihad or Cathay depending on end location. That would provide superior flying experience for sure.
Hopefully in the future we will have more direct flights from US to India. There used to be ones from United, Delta and American but not too many operate at this point.
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