In 2023, Air India disclosed that they would refurbish the lounges in Delhi and New York for the airline. The lounges are dated and have not been refurbished for a long time. With the arrival of the Tata Group on the scene, the airline has upgraded the amenities at the Delhi lounges. Still, the New York lounge has been the stuff of discussion in the western traveller communities, and most of the stuff I’ve heard is not nice (the lounge participates in the Priority Pass network for New York JFK).
Air India appointed Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA) of Singapore Airlines’ Lounges fame to refurbish Air India lounges at Terminal 3, Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi and Terminal 4 of JFK Airport in New York. The Air India International Lounge in Delhi is shut and being renovated.
Air India is now planning a Lounge at San Francisco International Airport.
Air India is also working on launching its second international lounge at the San Francisco International Airport. While the airline has not shared a timeline, I expect the lounge to be up and running sometime in 2025. 2025 will also be when Air India completes a decade of operations in San Francisco. The airline has not announced this lounge in the formal sense, but a disclosure has made its way into literature the airline distributes to the passengers.
The station has been wildly successful for Air India, and from launching three flights a week between Delhi and San Francisco in 2015, the airline now has 17 weekly frequencies to SFO, 9 of them being from Delhi alone and the rest from Mumbai and Bengaluru.
My Take on Air India’s Move
SFO is amongst the largest airports in the US and one of the busiest. Seventeen weekly flights roughly translate to 2-3 departures a day. But still, it makes sense for Air India to open its lounge here. For one, it signifies the importance of the market to the customers, who might be inclined to swing more high-yield corporate business their way with this signalling. Secondly, given that SFO is a gateway airport on the West Coast, and almost all airlines of note operate to SFO, it could also mean that the lounge could operate as a profit centre by being offered to other Star Alliance carriers (and other airlines as well), and if needed, even to the likes of Priority Pass.
Bottomline
Air India, which is currently refurbishing its Delhi and New York Lounges, will also open a lounge in San Francisco. The airline has already laid out the groundwork for it, and a formal announcement about this lounge’s whereabouts and opening timeline is still awaited.
What do you make of Air India’s Lounge strategy, and where do you think they will target opening a lounge next?
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That will be a great option for star alliance gold status holders travelling on UA, AI, TK, SQ, Eva, Air China. United club lounge is absolutely a crap
A friend who flew sf bom in J recently said they had access to UA Polaris lounge through the AI invite but did not end up going there as the gates were too far from the lounge,
Also 17 weekly flights now, in future once more aircrafts come online I am sure bom and blr will become daily so that’s atleast 7 more frequencies,
So might make sense having an exclusive lounge eventually with atleast 3 flights a day