The Dreamliners were grounded Jan. 16 following two battery-related incidents aboard All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines 787s. Authorities lifted the grounding April 19 after design modifications of the battery system were approved.
Air India 787s will be operated only on domestic routes in May; international flights to Frankfurt and London will begin from June 1. Teams of engineers from Boeing and the airline are currently performing the battery modifications on all six aircraft at Mumbai’s engineering base.
The induction of the Dreamliners was slated to be a major part of the turnaround strategy presented by the airline to the government. The aircraft was expected to allow the airline to expand its global footprint economically.
In January, India’s minister for civil aviation Ajit Singh said Air India would seek “some kind of compensation” for the grounding of its six 787s.
Inventory is up for sale on GDS for flights on the Delhi-Frankfurt, Delhi-Paris and Delhi-London routes from June 1.
The airline is also chalking out plans to restart flights to Rome, Moscow, Beijing and to either Melbourne or Sydney from India. These routes have been axed from its network over the past decade as the airline went deeper into a financial hole. Not everyone is sure the re-introduction of the Dreamliners alone can result in a turnaround. Though its financial numbers are not announced regularly, Air India is projected to end the financial year (April 2012 to March 2013) with a loss of about $1 billion.
The board also cleared a proposal to replace 19 of its older narrowbody aircraft with newer Airbus A320 family aircraft. They will all have a standard 180-seat configuration, and will be operated like low-cost carriers on the domestic routes. The process is likely to be carried out over the next two years. The leased aircraft will be returned and owned ones will be sold. After the process is complete, Air India will have 62 aircraft in its narrowbody fleet.
(Cuckoo Paul - ATWOnline News)
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