Air India SFO Nonstops End From Mumbai, Bengaluru

Air India will discontinue service between San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and both Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) and Kempegowda International Airport (BLR) starting March 1, 2026. Travelers who booked these city pairs for March and spring dates are the most exposed, especially business travelers who built tight onward connections, and families trying to avoid multi stop itineraries. The practical move now is to check whether your ticket will be reprotected via a different hub, and decide whether you want Air India's alternate routing or a refund so you can rebook on your own timeline.

The change matters because Air India SFO nonstop ending removes two origin city options and concentrates West Coast India demand onto fewer departures and more connections.

Air India's explanation, as reported by multiple outlets, is that ongoing airspace restrictions have raised costs and complicated aircraft deployment, undermining the time and cost advantage of operating these services. Business Standard, citing an Air India statement, describes the affected Boeing 777 services as already operating with en route refuelling stops due to the restrictions, and says they will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026. Times of India reports Air India will scale up Delhi service to San Francisco and Toronto to 10 flights per week each, and that impacted passengers will be re accommodated on alternative services or offered full refunds.

For travelers trying to identify what they might be holding today, Air India's own route marketing pages currently list flight numbers for these city pairs, including AI 642 and AI 179 for Bengaluru to San Francisco, and AI 806 and AI 816 for Mumbai to San Francisco. Treat those as directional only, because flight numbers and routings can change with seasonal schedules and with how the carrier files technical stops, but they can help you quickly recognize an impacted reservation in Manage Booking.

Who Is Affected

Travelers departing from Bengaluru and Mumbai for the U.S. West Coast are the obvious losers because the most convenient one plane itinerary is being removed from the schedule for travel starting March 1, 2026. Anyone connecting onward from the Bay Area, for example to Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, or smaller West Coast markets, should also expect higher misconnect exposure because a one stop itinerary often arrives later and depends on a tighter connection bank at the intermediate hub.

India bound travelers starting on the U.S. West Coast are equally exposed because return planning often hinges on the nonstop back to India to protect work schedules, school calendars, and medical appointments. When those nonstops disappear, the trip becomes more fragile because one additional leg creates one additional failure point, and long haul recovery options are limited when cabins are full.

The second order effects spread beyond flights. When demand consolidates onto Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) and a smaller set of connecting hubs in Europe and the Gulf, premium cabin award space and paid upgrade inventory can tighten quickly, especially for spring school break windows. Longer routings also increase the odds of a forced overnight, which pushes demand into airport hotels at hub cities, and that can inflate last minute room rates at the exact moment disrupted passengers need beds. More segments also increase baggage transfer risk, particularly when a misconnect forces a late rebook and the bag does not follow the passenger onto the new itinerary.

What Travelers Should Do

Start by pulling up your booking and looking for any schedule change notice, then check whether the replacement itinerary keeps you on a single ticket with protected connections. If you have a separate ticket connection, add buffer immediately, because you are effectively self insuring the handoff if you miss the onward flight. For March and early April travel, assume tighter availability, and price out at least two alternates before you accept a change, one via Delhi, and one via a major European or Gulf hub that you trust for rebooking support.

Use a simple decision threshold for whether to ride the airline's re accommodation or take a refund and rebook. If the offered reroute adds more than about four hours of total travel time each way, introduces an overnight connection you did not plan, or turns a previously protected itinerary into a separate ticket scenario, you are usually better off taking the refund and rebuilding the trip with fewer failure points. If the reroute stays on one ticket, keeps total time reasonable, and preserves your critical arrival window, accepting the change can be the lower risk move, especially if premium cabins are already tightening.

Over the next 24 to 72 hours after you receive a formal schedule change, monitor three items. Watch whether Air India increases Delhi San Francisco frequency in your exact travel week, because that can create better reaccommodation options. Watch partner and competitor availability on the same dates so you can act quickly if refunds are offered, and inventory is moving. Watch the fine print on your ticket, including fare rules and whether the carrier is offering a no penalty refund, because the best path often depends on whether you can exit cleanly without paying change fees or losing seat selection value.

How It Works

Route discontinuations propagate through the travel system differently than one day operational disruptions, because they change the baseline supply months in advance. When an airline removes a long haul city pair, passengers do not disappear, they concentrate onto substitutes. That typically means higher load factors on remaining flights, fewer open seats for irregular operations reaccommodation, and a faster shift from choice driven booking to scarcity driven booking, especially in premium cabins.

Air India's specific challenge, per its reported statement, is that airspace restrictions have eroded the economics and reliability of operating these ultra long haul services, including the need for technical fuel stops. Even when a ticket is marketed as nonstop, an unplanned stop turns a simple itinerary into a more complex one, adding time, crew duty risk, and more opportunities for delay. Once those technical stops become routine, the airline loses the main traveler value proposition, which is a predictable block time and a single arrival bank, and the operation becomes harder to schedule across the fleet.

The ripple effects show up quickly in connecting flows. If more passengers route through Delhi, that hub absorbs additional connection pressure, and misconnect risk rises when inbound flights are late, immigration queues are long, or gates are distant. In parallel, travelers who choose European or Gulf hubs create pressure on those transfer airports, which can drive demand for transit hotels, and amplify the cost of an overnight when something slips. Ground handling and baggage systems also take on more load at intermediate hubs, and every transfer is another chance for a bag to miss the aircraft, particularly if the passenger is rebooked onto a different flight after a delay.

For West Coast travelers, the downstream issue is that many itineraries to India are built around protected connections at a single hub. When a direct option disappears, travelers often stitch together mixed carrier alternatives, sometimes on separate tickets, to preserve timing or price. That can look fine on paper, but it reduces passenger protections when delays happen, and it can make insurance and credit card trip delay coverage more important to the overall trip risk model.

Sources

• From March 1, Air India to stop non-stops to San Francisco from Mumbai, Bengaluru
• Why Air India will stop non-stop Bengaluru, Mumbai-San Francisco flights
• Air India drops Bengaluru and Mumbai non-stop services to San Francisco
• Book Bangalore to San Francisco Flights
• Book Mumbai to San Francisco Flights