A proper sub-continent wrapped into one country. That is India for you. Yet, the longest flights in India are usually short hops, with some amongst the longest being at 2:45 hours, such as the flights from Delhi to Chennai (1090 miles). However the quest for the Longest Indian Non Stop Flight continues.
When IndiGo and Air India launched flights between Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram, they became the longest flights in the country by a long mile. With 3:20 hours of block time and 1382 miles of flying, this is currently India’s longest flight.
SpiceJet will be launching a seasonal flight in December, which will be the longest non-stop domestic flight in India for the time being. They plan to do a daily non-stop on the Delhi – Port Blair route using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft December onwards. The schedule of this flight will be
SG946 DEL0715 – 1100IXZ 738 D
SG942 IXZ1140 – 1530DEL 738 D
SpiceJet will be operating this flight between 10 December 2017 and 9 February 2018 on a daily basis.
Even Air India will be launching a new triangular flight next year, which will take the mantle from all the current flights. Air India will launch a Delhi – Port Blair – Vizag – Delhi rotation, which will be operated on three days in the schedule, and for the rest of the days, it will be Delhi – Vizag – Port Blair – Delhi flights.
Here is the schedule for this new flight, which will be launched on January 1, 2018 and will operate through March 24, 2018.
AI485 DEL0530 – 0915IXZ 321 2357
AI486 IXZ0955 – 1155VTZ 321 2357
AI486 VTZ1230 – 1435DEL321 2357AI485 DEL0530 – 0735VTZ 321 146
AI485 VTZ0810 – 1010IXZ 321 146
AI486 IXZ1050 – 1435DEL 321 2357
Last year, Vistara had briefly operated a few flights on the Delhi – Port Blair sector to showcase their range capabilities, however, this will indeed be a normal schedule for the next few months.
Is anyone planning a hop on these flights just for the pleasure of flying?
Is there any demand for such flights? Or is this just to shuttle Government Babus around?