Originally Posted by
Hollinger Clarke
AA were flying a high premium configured 777 with 16 F seats ... as Longboater remarked the yields (with or without AI) are pretty much on the low side. AA will probably restart service to DEL/BOM in the future with the 787-8/9 since the configuration (esp of the -9) offers a perfect setup for the Indian market - low number of J and high Y.
There are several caveats - AA's Indian partner is Jet - once BOM has its state of the art integrated Intl and Domestic terminal up and running (currently only Intl is operational) it would be significantly easier for AA to offer one stop connections to almost all of India with favorable timings since Jet has a pretty strong network ex BOM.
Most importantly - India was downgraded to Cat 2 by the FAA - so at the moment US carriers can neither start new service nor put new codeshares on other carriers service to India.
I would look for AA to restart DEL and start BOM in maybe a couple of years down the road, assuming of course that FAA upgrades them back to Cat 1.
If American even wants to try to get back into India flying, my guess would be to BOM. Newark is the only city to have service to BOM. Operating a 787-9 on say ORD-BOM would provide tremendous cost savings than on ORD-DEL. It would also have the benefit of operating without a nonstop competitor, unless Air India wants in on the market when their 787-9s arrive. But still, the ME 3 could continue to keep fares low and keep the route unprofitable. There is a reason only United makes money on USA-India nonstop.