NEW DELHI: Indian visitors to San Francisco are among the first to return to pre-Covid levels as Air India’s nonstops launched to the Golden Gate city in 2015 have given a massive push to desi footfalls there. The San Francisco International Airport (SFO) currently gets 17 Air India nonstops from India weekly, next to New York’s 21. Had United not suspended its 14 weekly flights to SFO, the airport would have been the biggest gateway in the US for nonstops from India.
SFO chief financial & commercial officer Kevin Bumen and San Francisco Travel Association (SFTA) EVP Hubertus Funke are currently in India to meet airlines and travel industry representatives to get more flights and visitors from India. Despite India being halfway round the globe away, they both say the country is in the top five source markets for them.
“We currently get 17 weekly nonstops from India, all operated by Air India from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. United (whose west coast hub is SFO) used to have 14 weekly nonstops from India. San Francisco has the second largest Indian origin population at almost 3 lakh, next to New York’s about 5 lakh. So Indians come here for all reasons like visiting friends and relatives (VFR), tourism, business and leisure. The demand is huge and we see scope for a lot more connectivity from India,” SFO’s Bumen said. Currently about 1,100 passengers travel each way everyday between San Francisco/Bay Area and India.
Bumen says Delhi-SFO, currently 11 every week, can be ramped up to double daily or 14 weekly. He sees nonstops from Hyderabad and Chennai. He has met AI management. The Tata Group airline has significant plans to keep ramping up US nonstops as its fleet grows in the next few years. To be sure, the largest chunk of travel between India and North America, including SFO, happens on one-stops via hubs in the Gulf (like Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi), Europe (like Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam and London) and Southeast Asia (Singapore) on foreign airlines.
SFTA’s Funke said the Golden Gate city got 2.1 lakh Indians in 2019, a figure that was at 1.6 lakh in 2022 when travel restrictions were being removed after Covid. “This year we expect over 2.1 lakh Indians. India will be the first overseas market to recover to 2019 levels for us,” he said. Indian visitors are big spenders and hence are wooed aggressively by almost all countries post Covid. “Indians spent $497 million in 2019 and their contribution to our local economy was really significant. The nonstops launched by AI in 2015 have helped give a big boost to visitations from India. We hope to see more flights by AI and for United to resume their nonstops once the (Russian) airspace restrictions are lifted,” Funke, also SFTA’s chief tourism officer, said.
Getting big overseas spenders like Indians is a priority for San Francisco as its downtown — Union Square — has suffered an immense blow post Covid. What used to be a thriving buzz of economic activity full of tourists and workers till 2019 is now not even a pale shadow of its former self. Today Union Square and its nearby Market Street — that leads to Ferry Building and Embarcadero going all the way through waterfront attractions like Fisherman’s Wharf to the Golden Gate Bridge — have rows of shut down stores. The iconic Westfield Mall on Market Street now has a new owner and a new name —San Francisco Centre Mall.
“Our downtown was reliant big time on tech workers. With remote work, the work force is not back to the downtown. Now things are slowly improving. New lines of business are coming to our town like artificial intelligence and food innovation,” Funke said.
SFO chief financial & commercial officer Kevin Bumen and San Francisco Travel Association (SFTA) EVP Hubertus Funke are currently in India to meet airlines and travel industry representatives to get more flights and visitors from India. Despite India being halfway round the globe away, they both say the country is in the top five source markets for them.
“We currently get 17 weekly nonstops from India, all operated by Air India from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. United (whose west coast hub is SFO) used to have 14 weekly nonstops from India. San Francisco has the second largest Indian origin population at almost 3 lakh, next to New York’s about 5 lakh. So Indians come here for all reasons like visiting friends and relatives (VFR), tourism, business and leisure. The demand is huge and we see scope for a lot more connectivity from India,” SFO’s Bumen said. Currently about 1,100 passengers travel each way everyday between San Francisco/Bay Area and India.
Bumen says Delhi-SFO, currently 11 every week, can be ramped up to double daily or 14 weekly. He sees nonstops from Hyderabad and Chennai. He has met AI management. The Tata Group airline has significant plans to keep ramping up US nonstops as its fleet grows in the next few years. To be sure, the largest chunk of travel between India and North America, including SFO, happens on one-stops via hubs in the Gulf (like Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi), Europe (like Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam and London) and Southeast Asia (Singapore) on foreign airlines.
SFTA’s Funke said the Golden Gate city got 2.1 lakh Indians in 2019, a figure that was at 1.6 lakh in 2022 when travel restrictions were being removed after Covid. “This year we expect over 2.1 lakh Indians. India will be the first overseas market to recover to 2019 levels for us,” he said. Indian visitors are big spenders and hence are wooed aggressively by almost all countries post Covid. “Indians spent $497 million in 2019 and their contribution to our local economy was really significant. The nonstops launched by AI in 2015 have helped give a big boost to visitations from India. We hope to see more flights by AI and for United to resume their nonstops once the (Russian) airspace restrictions are lifted,” Funke, also SFTA’s chief tourism officer, said.
Getting big overseas spenders like Indians is a priority for San Francisco as its downtown — Union Square — has suffered an immense blow post Covid. What used to be a thriving buzz of economic activity full of tourists and workers till 2019 is now not even a pale shadow of its former self. Today Union Square and its nearby Market Street — that leads to Ferry Building and Embarcadero going all the way through waterfront attractions like Fisherman’s Wharf to the Golden Gate Bridge — have rows of shut down stores. The iconic Westfield Mall on Market Street now has a new owner and a new name —San Francisco Centre Mall.
“Our downtown was reliant big time on tech workers. With remote work, the work force is not back to the downtown. Now things are slowly improving. New lines of business are coming to our town like artificial intelligence and food innovation,” Funke said.
