Delta Air Lines has relaunched last December 22 its direct service between the New York and Mumbai in a step that would fill a "missing piece" in the American carrier's network connecting the United States and India.

The new daily service — which will utilize its Boeing 777-200LR planes —  is expected to provide extensive import and export opportunities for freight forwarders, supporting import and export to and from India.

Key export products from India are anticipated to be pharmaceuticals, automobile parts, perishables, courier shipments and general cargo.

India "missing piece" of Delta cargo network

"This is an exciting new route for us and the extensive connections from New York really play to our network strength in the US providing customers with significant opportunities for import and export in a market that is seeing huge growth," said Gonzalo Hernandez, Delta Cargo Sales, EMEAI.

"India has been the missing piece of our cargo portfolio and we are receiving a warm welcome back into the market from our customers and partners."

The timing of the flight into New York means that freight can connect through one of Delta's largest hubs to more than 50 convenient onward connections throughout North America, Latin America and the Caribbean.

For temperature-sensitive freight, the expanded coolers in the New York warehouse ensure there is capacity, alongside the airline's high-quality service, for pharmaceuticals.

The Delta flight is scheduled to depart Mumbai at 12:55 a.m. (local time), arriving at New York at 6:25 a.m. (local time). It will depart New York-JFK Airport at 9:15 p.m. and arrive in Mumbai at 10:35 p.m. the next day.

Delta has earlier discontinued its nonstop service between the US and India in 2015 saying that subsidized state-owned airlines made operating the service  “economically unviable.”

Delta is supported in the market by our long-term partner Sharaf Cargo who will be the airline's general sales agent for India.

“With the fastest-growing trillion-dollar economy in the world, India is a global commercial force, and we are thrilled to make our long-anticipated return for travellers whose demand for this service has increased significantly in the last decade,” said Dwight James, senior vice president —international pricing & revenue management.