NEWS

Boeing having confirmed a delay in the delivery of the 787 Dreamliner, Air India is considering leasing up to 10 to 15 aircraft this year in order to meet the shortage. Chairman and Managing Director V. Thulasidas, National Aviation Company of India Ltd, said: Due to Boeing 787 delays and phasing out of older aircraft, we are looking at leasing 10 to 15 aircraft. The lease will help Air India upgrade its ageing fleet even as it awaits deliveries from Boeing and Airbus. Boeing said it postponed the first delivery of its 787 Dreamliner until early 2009, the second setback for the company’s most successful new jetliner going by sales figures. The Dreamliner programme, delayed by six months on October 10, 2007, has been hurt by parts shortages and assembly delays.

VIEWS

Air India and Indian were merged in 2007 to create a new airline with a fleet large enough to be ranked among the top 30 carriers in the world. With a combined fleet of 140 airliners and an additional 111 on order, the new company National Aviation Company of India Ltd has been operating on domestic and international routes under the brand name Air India. Of the current holdings, a large number of aircraft are approaching the end of operational life, giving rise to frequent glitches in maintenance and thus eroding the airline’s competitive edge in the global arena. The proposed acquisition would be a mix of the latest from the Boeing and Airbus stables. Plans announced by the government to double the Air India fleet in the next five to seven years appear somewhat ambitious and uphill as both Airbus and Boeing seem to be afflicted with production difficulties resulting in delays in aircraft delivery.

Air India’s order with Boeing stands at 68 aircraft, including 27 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, 23 Boeing 777s and 18 Boeing 737- 800s. The rather optimistic plan for enlargement of the fleet was formulated to meet the demands of overseas route expansion urgently required by Air India to reverse its overall downslide of the past several years. The 18 Boeing 737-800 aircraft would be operated by the airline’s low-cost subsidiary, Air India Express, to cover routes to the Middle East and Southeast Asia.