Dare to select a route longer than 1000 km to save a lot of time Air India succeeded, what is that method?

Indian airlineAir IndiaBut he changed the Delhi - San Francisco flight to a long distance route. By changing this route, we succeeded in drastically shortening the flight time.

Air India Taking Advantage of Tailwinds - Flightradar 24 Blog
https://blog.flightradar24.com/blog/air-india-taking-advantage-of-tailwinds/

Air India had taken the route of AI173 / AICI 173 flight which flew between Delhi and San Francisco, a route of "west circle" which passed through Asia, Europe, Atlantic Ocean which is short distance in the past. However, from October 15, 2016, although the distance became farther, it changed to the "eastbound" route which crosses the country over China and crosses the North Pacific Ocean.


The flight distance of the conventional westbound route is about 14,000 kilometers, while the distance of the new eastbound route is about 15,000 kilometers. It was about 1000 kilometers, a new route that flies an extra half of Japan's Honshu distance, but the actual flight time was 16 hours 44 minutes for the old route, while the new route was 14 hours 30 In short, it has realized a significant time reduction of more than 2 hours.

Why did the new route succeed in shortening the flight time despite distance up?Westerly windThat is the cause. As the new eastbound route can make the westerly wind blowing from the west to the east in the northern hemisphere mid latitude zone, it is possible to increase the speed of the airframe as compared to the conventional westward route flying in a westerly wind That's it. In addition, by using the westerly wind as a tailwind, we not only improved the flight speed but also succeeded in reducing fuel consumption.


Air India, the route between San Francisco and Delhi, which is on the way back, still takes the northern route that passes through the Arctic Circle. However, in some cases there is a possibility of a change to the eastbound route which can use the westerly wind.