Air India-Indian Air Force tussle delays acquisition of Boeing 777-300 jets for VIP flights

NEW DELHI: The President, Vice-President and Prime Minister will now have to wait longer for their new long range VIP aircraft over confusion on who will operate them -Air India or Indian Air Force ( IAF).

They currently use four Boeing 747 jumbo jets of AI that are over 26 year old. The government had decided to take two Boeing 777-300 extended range from AI and send them to Boeing in US for VIP retrofitting and high-end security fixtures like antimissile systems.

It was decided that postmodification, these planes will be handed over to IAF which would operate them with technical support of AI."There has now been a rethink in the government that since AI has the pilots, engineering and expertise, these aircraft should remain with AI. However, there is no clar ity over whether these planes can have the registration of a civil aircraft and be used as passenger jets for commercial use of AI when not being deployed for VIP flights," said a source.

The rethink in the government also means that India will not get its version of the Air Force One (as the VIP aircraft would have been called had it been operated by IAF) and continue with the call sign AI One. The old Boeing 747s being used todayare perfectly safe to fly but due to their advanced age, they are fuel guzzlers.