“I do think Boston will be on their list of intended direct service destinations,” Sheridan said. “I do believe we would be in the queue.”
Martha Sheridan, head of the Meet Boston tourism bureau, returned last week from a trade mission to Hyderabad, organized by the Brand USA marketing partnership, that included a meeting with Air India. She came back hopeful about the prospects of connecting Logan with India directly.
A direct passage to India is one of the last big missing links in Logan Airport’s growing web of nonstop flights. But that could be changing soon.
Sheridan said Tata Group-owned Air India is still in the process of building up its fleet, and likely needs more jets before it can accommodate a Boston route. Currently in the US, Air India offers nonstop flights to Chicago, Newark, New York, San Francisco, and Washington (via Dulles, in Virginia), and flights will be coming to Dallas/Forth Worth and Los Angeles. (Brand USA says the US received 2.2 million arrivals from India in 2024, a 24 percent increase from 2023, ranking India second after China for the most overseas travelers to this country.)
“The US is a huge market for them,” Sheridan said.
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A spokeswoman for Massport says the port authority remains quite interested in bringing Air India to Boston, and continues to have discussions with the airline. Even without the direct flights, Meet Boston is ramping up its outreach efforts to draw more Indian travelers in the coming months. Greater Boston’s higher ed, pharmaceutical, and high-tech sectors all attract interest from India, Sheridan noted, and Massachusetts has a substantial Indian population.
Sheridan said Meet Boston will hire a promotional firm to represent Massachusetts in India this year for the first time, using funds raised through relatively new 1.5-percent fees assessed on hotel stays in Boston and Cambridge.
“Boston hasn’t really focused on that market intentionally,” Sheridan said. “If we are more intentional about our efforts, we will get more traffic, even without direct air service.”
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.
Boston tourism officials working on attracting nonstop flights to and from India
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