As it is expected, air passenger traffic between Asian
megacities going to dominate the global long-haul air travel market in
the coming years. And by 2030 the top 10 Asian megacities will be Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, Mumbai, Beijing,
Dhaka, Karachi, Osaka, Kolkata and Guangzhou. At present, Delhi is connected to all the
above megacities with non-stop flights barring Osaka in Japan. Although Air
India operates a three weekly direct flight on the Delhi-Osaka route but it
flies via Hong Kong. Air India's one-stop flight on the 6,230 km (3,364 nm)
Delhi-Hong Kong-Osaka route is significantly longer than a
prospective non-stop flight on the 5,483 km (2,960 nm) Delhi-Osaka route.
As a result Air India caters to only 25% of the O&D market. Therefore
a non-stop flight would better serve the city-pair and unlock the true
potential of the route.
