Air India to take delivery of Boeing wide aircraft, won't change order

NEW DELHI: Indicating ambitious growth plans for its international network, Air India has decided to take delivery of the three remaining Boeing 777-300 extended range (ER) aircraft from the US aircraft major. The airline had been toying with the idea of converting the order of these three widebody aircraft into 10 narrow-body Boeing 737 max and give them to its low-cost arm AI Express.

"We have decided to drop the idea of changing the order of the remaining three B-777s. We will use them for newer routes," said a senior AI official. The airline is looking at expanding its footprint in the US, where it will open the new route of Delhi-San Francisco from December 2.

Erstwhile AI had ordered 68 Boeing aircraft in 2006 - eight Boeing 777-200 long range; 15 B777-300 ER and 27 B787s and 18 B737 for AI Express. AI has so far got 12 B-777 300 ER and three remained on order which it will now get. For the other Boeings, AI sold five B-777 200 LR to Etihad and retained three of them. It has got 21B-787 Dreamliners and is yet to take delivery of six more. AI Express has got all the planes from that order.

The airline has also decided to take 14 Airbus A-320s on lease so that its old-generation A-320s - which joined erstwhile Indian Airlines' fleet from 1989 to early 1990s - can be phased out. However, given the tight lease market for this plane, the airline will start getting them from 2017 onwards. Meanwhile, a team of top officials from Boeing will meet AI's new chief Ashwani Lohani on October 19 to discuss Dreamliner snags. After a period of relative quiet, AI's Boeing 787s have been afflicted by a series of snags since early last month.

AI's turnaround banks on the Dreamliners and it needs Boeing to improve their reliability as frequent snags in this aircraft have led to a lot of trouble for both the airline and passengers. "Himself an engineer, Lohani is going to ask Boeing to do the needful at the earliest," said a source.