‘Maharaja’ on North Pole! Air India becomes first Indian Airline to fly over north pole on Independence Day
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New Delhi, Aug 16: Air India is not just India’s airline but also India’s pride. The Indian National air carrier achieved another milestone on this 73rd Independence day. India’s ‘Maharaja’ becomes 1st Indian Airline to operate commercial flights over the North Pole.
The Delhi-San Francisco flight of Air India which usually flies over the Atlantic or Pacific ocean flew over zero degrees North on 15th August.
Amid the ongoing tension with Pakistan, Air India’s operations department had already planned two flight paths for the polar route debut.
The new flight route is expected to reduce the flight duration by around one-and-a-half hours and fuel savings would be in the range of 2,000 to 7,000 kilograms per flight.
Air India’s statement stated, “We were asked to be prepared for a Pakistan airspace closure on August 15. Had they shut down their airspace to Indian flights, we still would have flown the polar route, though with a different routing that took the aircraft over Strait of Hormuz and then northbound for the pole”.
As per the statement, the Delhi-San Francisco flight AI-173 took off at 4 am on 15 August with about 243 passengers on board. As there were no restrictions imposed for Indian flights over Pakistani airspace, it flew over Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and overflowed the North Pole by 12.27am to cross over to the other side of the Planet Earth.
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