WE WOULD CERTAINLY LIKE TO SEE MORE NON-STOP SERVICES TO NEW DESTINATIONS IN INDIA...

India is a big Aviation market for the United States and one airport that is really booming with 186% growth in passenger numbers within the first two quarters of 2023 is San Francisco International Airport (SFO). To share more insight Kevin Bumen, CFO and Chief Commercial Officer, SFO Airport in an Interview with Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor, Aviation World discuss at length about the growth, future plans, association with Air India and may more interesting points.

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There is always a great interest for Indian Carrier to operate to SFO. How do you see the relevance of existing route and addition of more flights in near future?

Air India has been a huge success story as far as SFO is concerned. During the pandemic there were few airlines that grew in our market which is quite remarkable for many reasons. When we look back over the last 4 years, the target to 2019 was just one destination initially with Delhi and of course they have grown now to three in a very short time. They have essentially double the operation from 9 flights a week to 17 a week and which breaks down with majority to Delhi of course but having seen the other market in India with structure established, really chose the strength of the market across the entire country. Seat capacity has gone up from 2042 seats per week back in August 2019 and this August we are 4397 seats per week. It's a huge increase. We look forward obviously potential for Mumbai, Bengaluru to get a daily service and then we also see future markets as Hyderabad and Chennai which can likely support flights as well.

What's the exact number of traffic of San Francisco International Airport from India both in terms of connectivity and pax?

When we look at the overall area or market and its measured on the basis of frequency of daily passengers today. The market has a lot of potential and knows those passengers could be flowing in number of ways to and from but having that kind of strength in the region the opportunity for non-stop services is very strong.

It's also been seen that India is primed for significant growth, especially in the luxury travel market. What's your take on this transition?