Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Air Inida? Pilots slug it out over flying it.

NEW DELHI: The government may be undecided on whether cash-strapped Air India should go ahead with acquiring the Boeing 787 Dreamliners but an intense battle has already broken out within the airline over who would fly this plane! Pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India, who till now were bitterly divided on the issue of pay parity, are now engaged in an all out war over flying the Dreamliner.

AI pilots have been staking claim to fly the 787s on the basis of an agreement they claim to have struck with the management in the past. But IA pilots are also staking claim to be trained for this new aircraft. Unlike AI pilots who get fixed pay for 80 hours, their IA counterparts get paid only for actual number of hours flown. According to sources, AI would require 80 to 100 pilots to fly the 27 Dreamliners ordered by it. After a delay of over two years, Boeing says their delivery may begin from December.

A senior IA commander said: "From average flying of 75 hours a month some time back, our actual flying is down to about 52 hours now. So we have already taken a one-third pay cut. Being sent to the 787 means some of us would get to fly the new aircraft while the remaining will get their flying hours increased . Sending pilots from AI's Boeing 777 fleet to the 787 would create a shortage for that plane and possibly require hiring of expats for the B-777 s. Despite this ground reality, there's an attempt to keep us out of that plane as the Dreamliners were ordered by erstwhile AI in premerger days." There are indications of industrial unrest unless the airline is able to resolve this issue to the satisfaction of both the warring AI, IA factions.

But given AI's poor financial health where the airline is saddled with working capital and aircraft loans of Rs 44,000 crore and huge losses, the government is yet to make up its mind on going ahead with the 787 order as that would mean an additional debt of almost Rs 18,000 crore. "We have yet to decide what to do. There is the option of sale and lease back to avoid more debt getting reflected on our balance sheet but that would also mean huge lease expense . This is not an easy decision to take," said a senior government official. The airline, on its part, has been pushing for this medium-capacity-mediumrange aircraft as the answer to its financial woes.

"We need to know what the government is deciding as preparations have to be made for the new plane in terms of training the pilots. Being the first of its kind aircraft in the world, there are as yet no trained pilots for the 787. We need to train our pilots ," said a senior AI official, while admitting 'issues' between IA and AI pilots over who would get to fly this plane. In the past also, AI has suffered losses with its aircraft remaining on ground due to paucity of trained pilots and cabin crew.

Now unless the government decides fast whether AI is to get the Dreamliner and the airline resolves the issue of who flies them, the national carrier's dream of a turnaround may remain unfulfilled.

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