It was a flight of firsts by all accounts: the longest flight ever achieved by an Indian airline which had an all-woman crew.
The flight landed at India's Bengaluru city from San Francisco, US, early Monday having flown over the North Pole and covered nearly 14,000km non-stop in 16 hours - actually arriving at its bay 20 minutes before the scheduled time.
The five-member team led by Captain Zoya Aggarwal emerged from the arrival gate to a round of applause by passengers and visitors to the airport as an acknowledgement of their historic accomplishment.
Netizens too have poured forth congratulatory messages to the crew even as the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka state, put out images of the team on Twitter.
A clutch of Indian politicians including Rahul Gandhi of Congress Party and Nara Chandrababu Naidu, chief of Telugu Desam Party, took to Twitter to congratulate the team and Air India over the feat.
Captain Zoya's Twitter account was flooded with congratulatory messages from top leaders as well.