From: vpmath1@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Ruth Radetsky)
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
Subject: Re: Which airlines for Frequent Flier Program ??
Date: 16 Dec 92 16:57:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: csus.1992Dec16.165716.18449
Organization: San Francisco State University

My roommate the travel agent did some research on routes from the USA
to India, and came up with the following:


The reason it takes so long, and that you have to go so far, to fly
between the USA and India is the same as the reason most travelllers
from the East Coast to India go via Europe and from the West Coast go
via East (usually Southeast) Asia: that reason is that no airline flies
anything even remotely resembling a direct route (even with connections)
between the USA and India.  Please don't flame back without looking at a
globe first.  A direct (great circle) route from anywhere in the USA to
anywhere in South Asia would be a polar route over Central Siberia and
ex-Soviet Central Asia.  No airline flies such a route; in fact, all
routes with scheduled airline service go at least a thousand miles out
of their way, and in most cases 2000-3000 miles.  All airlines except
Aeroflot go way out of their way (via either Europe or East Asia) to
avoid overflying ex-Soviet territory.  To make matters worse, there is
no service between India and (Hong Kong excepted) China, the world's two
most populous countries, and relations are sufficiently hostile that
flights from some other places (particularly Japan) have to go even
further out of their way to avoid overflying Chinese territory as well
en route to India.  Aeroflot does have direct flights from several US
points to Moscow (in the far west of Russia) and Khabarovsk (in the Far
East), but there is as yet no service from the US to anywhere in the
central part of the ex-USSR.  The major cities closest to the
great-circle routes from the US to India are Novosibirsk and Tashkent.
Novosib, recognizing its ideal location as a hub in the center of
Eurasia, has been trying to upgrade its airport to attract international
(especially East Asia - Europe) refueling and stopover business, but as
yet has no customs or immigration facilities and little experience with
international traffic or foreign equipment.  Tashkent is a diifferent
story, as it has long been the air hub of Central Asia and was the
second-largest international air gateway to the USSR, with flights to
all of South and Southeast Asia.   Uzbekhistan Airways, with the fleet
and facilities of the former Uzbek divisions of Aeroflot, is the largest
and best-equipped of the new airlines of the newly-independent
republics, and has already added direct service from Tashkent to London,
Frankfurt, Istanbul, etc., including through service
London-Tashkent-Delhi.  They don't serve the US yet (only Air Ukraine of
the new republican carriers has US service) but if they were to do so,
it would probably be mainly to capitalize on the US - India traffic.

The potential time and distance savings are enormous.  San Francisco -
Delhi is about the same great-circle distance as SFO - Melbourne,
Australia, and need take no longer.  It's a little too far for a
nonstop (and the ex-Soviets generally require a refueling stop, whicch
brings them hard currency for fuel, etc., as a condition of overflight
rights) but SFO - Tashkent is almost exactly the same distance as SFO -
Hong Kong and could be non-stop, with through service SFO - Tashkent -
Delhi in a total of less than 18 hours. 

For now, the shortest routes in miles are still the Aeroflot ones,
although the connecting times make them far from the fastest.  They are:
from the East Coast, New York - Moscow - Tashkent  - Delhi
from the West Coast, SFO - Anchorage - Khabarovsk  - Tashkent - Delhi

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Ruth Radetsky                              vpmath1@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air