Deliveries of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Air India have been delayed by two more months, with the first aircraft now expected to be handed over only in December.
Airline officials on Wednesday confirmed the delay, saying the delivery of the first 787, to Japan’s ANA, has still not been completed. That rules out any possibility of the aircraft coming to Air India —- which will get the 22nd 787 —- before December.
The arrival of Dreamliners is crucial to Air India’s turnaround since it currently lacks any medium-haul aircraft in its fleet.
Once the aircraft start arriving, the airline plans to reopen lucrative sectors such as Malaysia, to begin with. Some years back, Air India had 21 weekly services to Malaysia but had to shut down the flights because of non-availability of proper medium-haul aircraft.
Already, Air India is fighting with the Boeing Company for compensating it on an almost three-year delay in delivering the Dreamliners. Airline officials said Boeing has been told about the Rs6,000 crore estimated revenue loss because of the delay and Air India will pursue the compensation issue further.
Air India is also pushing for two full-fledged low-cost services in its turnaround plan.
The current Alliance Air service would be converted to a low-cost carrier (LCC) with a fleet of 40 aircraft and the airline has already applied for necessary permissions. This service will eventually have 30 turboprop aircraft for connecting Tier II and Tier III towns via an LCC model, though the airline wants to lease 15 turboprops to begin operations.
“We should be in the domestic LCC market from this year’s winter schedule,” said an official.
Code-share quest continues
Inability to join the Star Alliance may have cost Air India as much as Rs400 crore a year in revenue.
The prestigious airline grouping last week decided against taking the state-owned carrier into its fold, citing non-completion of some joining formalities.
Now, even as AI officials say they will continue to seek entry into the club, efforts are also on to forge individual commercial code share agreements in select markets with individual airlines.
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com
