Mumbai, Aug 14 (TIWN) Marking a new aviation milestone, the Air India (AI) on Monday announced its inaugural passenger flight over the North Pole region from August 15 between New Delhi and San Francisco.

 This all started when the Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA), aviation regulator of India, issued a circular asking if any Indian airlines would be interested in flying over the North Pole and Air India showed interest. 

The perk of flying over the North Pole is that it saves fuel and time. At the moment, the route that the New Delhi to San Francisco flight takes, it goes over Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, and Japan before it crosses the Pacific Ocean to enter the United States of America. This route takes the flight 17 hours of flying to reach its destination.  However, the new route would save 90 minutes making the travel time 15.5 hours. This route would include flying over Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, the Arctic Ocean, Canada, and then entering the US.