DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS: Boeing 787 Dreamliner For Air India Debuts In New Delhi

DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS: Boeing 787 Dreamliner For Air India Debuts In New Delhi
>14-hour non-stop flight marks first visit to India for airplane painted in Air India colors
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Boeing
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada / NEW DELHI, - March 12, 2012: After a 14-hour non-stop flight from Seattle, a Boeing (NYSE: BA) 787 Dreamliner in Air India's colors touched down at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi today.

"We're proud to bring the world's most advanced commercial airplane to India, especially when it proudly displays the colors of national flag carrier Air India," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president of Asia Pacific and India Sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "This week even more of our airlinecustomers will experience the game-changing technologies and innovations the 787 has to offer."

The 787 will be on static display in New Delhi before debuting at India Aviation 2012 in Hyderabad on March 14. The Dreamliner that will be showcased is outfitted in Air India's livery and an inviting passenger interior featuring full business and economy-class cabins.

Made from composite materials, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is the first airplane to provide both long distance capabilities with mid-size capacity. This capability will allow airlines like Air India to profitably operate non-stop routes to many more distant cities, providing choices preferred by the traveling public.

As a result of innovative technologies, the airplane offers unparalleled operating economics, fuel efficiency and passenger comfort. More than 800 787s are on order by 60 customers, a testament to the airplane's unique capabilities.

Air India Fleet
Aircraft	In service	Orders	Passengers				Notes
			F	J	Y	Total
Airbus A319	24	—	0	0	144	144	5 dry leased
Airbus A320-200	18	—	0	20	126	146	6 dry leased
Airbus A321-200	20	—	0	20	152	172
Airbus A330-200	2	—	0	24	255	279	both dry leased
Boeing 747-400	5	—	12	26	385	423	2 dry leased
Boeing 777-200LR	8	—	8	35	195	238	5 to be leased out
Boeing 777-300ER	12	3	4	35	303	342
Boeing 787-8	—	27	0	18	238	256[2]	First aircraft delivery March 2012[3]
Total	89	30

Contact: 
Wilson Chow
International Communications
Boeing Commercial Airplanes
+1 425-306-5921
wilson.chow@boeing.com

Bhawna Singh
Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick
+91 989 9158658
bhawna@corvoshandwick.co.in 

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Boeing
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DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS: Air India To Take First 787 In October: Sources

DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS: Air India To Take First 787 In October: Sources

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Flight International

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 25, 2011:

Air India is slated to take its first 787 in October, the first of 27 the carrier has on order, Boeing and airline sources tell ATI and Flightglobal.

The first aircraft, likely Airplane 25, will be registered VT-ANA, and powered with twin General Electric GEnx-1B engines.

According to Boeing's latest Z23 schedule planning, the Indian carrier will be among the four asian airlines to receive 20 787s in 2011.

All Nippon Airways is slated to receive its first in July, with Japan Airlines to follow in October, followed by China Southern in late in 2011.

Air India said at last month's Aero India in Bangalore it anticipated receiving its first 787 in the fourth quarter, in line with the October target, more than three years after its first was expected in September 2008.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources

Flight International

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DTN News: Airlines News TODAY October 11, 2009 ~ Air India To Deploy More Wide-Bodied Planes On Global Routes

DTN News: Airlines News TODAY October 11, 2009 ~ Air India To Deploy More Wide-Bodied Planes On Global Routes

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - October 11, 2009: Air India will deploy the wide-bodied Boeing aircraft B777 on all its seven west-bound destinations as well as Tokyo from Oct 25, the national carrier said Saturday.

“With more than half of our fleet now comprising of the new aircraft, it has given us an opportunity to rework our winter schedule in such a manner as to provide passengers with a product that matches the best in the industry, both on international and domestic sectors,” the airline said in a statement. Currently the state-of-the-art B777s are flown to New York, Chicago, Frankfurt and London. “The B777 will now be extended to Newark, Paris, Toronto and Tokyo, on long-haul destinations,” it said. Of the 111 new aircraft on order, the airline has received and inducted 64 aircraft so far. They include nine B777-300ER, eight B777-200LR, 15 A321 and A319 aircraft, besides 17 B737-800 aircraft for Air India Express. The airline has rescheduled its international operations for this winter. The existing Amritsar-London-Toronto flight will now operate with a B777-300ER, four days a week out of Amritsar while on the remaining three days, the flight will originate from Delhi. Also the existing thrice-weekly flight to Paris will now be operated with B777-200LR instead of Airbus A330, while four weekly flights to Tokyo will deploy a B777-200LR instead of A330. Besides these, additional flights on the Mumbai-Riyadh and Delhi-Riyadh routes will take the total frequencies from India to Riyadh to 11 per week from the existing nine. All the 11 flights will be operated with B777-200ER aircraft instead of B747-400. While the B777 300-ER has a total of 342 seats in three-class configuration, the B777-200LR has a capacity of 238 seats.

DTN News: Air India Aims To Turn Profitable In Three Years

DTN News: Air India Aims To Turn Profitable In Three Years

*Source: DTN News / Bloomberg By Vipin V. Nair

(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - August 8, 2009: Air India, the state-run carrier with $1.5 billion of accumulated losses, said it will create four business units, slash capacity and pay debt to turn profitable in three years. Cargo, engineering services, ground handling and airline operations will be separate divisions, Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav said today in New Delhi. The number of employees will be “rationalized,” he said without elaborating. Air India, seeking state funds, must reorganize after the government asked it for a “time-bound program” as part of conditions for the rescue package. The carrier delayed June salaries to its 32,000 employees and plans to cancel aircraft orders after traffic slumped and debt mounted. The cost-saving measures will “be painful,” Jadhav said. “We’ve got into a cash-flow problem. We are unable to service our interest and debt liabilities with our internal resources.” The focus in the first nine months of the reorganization will be “survival,” Air India said in a statement posted on its Web site. The units will be started in the next nine months and the carrier will aim to turn around in the following 18 months and prepare for an initial public offer. Leased Aircraft Air India will return the aircraft that are on lease, Jadhav said. The airline is in talks with Boeing Co. about canceling orders for six 777 planes, spokesman Jitender Bhargava said on July 31. “We are having a re-look at all the new aircraft,” Jadhav said. “We need to work with the vendors.” Air India, which has an equity capital of 1.45 billion rupees ($30 million), more than doubled its debt to 152 billion rupees as of June 30 after increasing loans to pay for 49 of the 111 planes ordered from Airbus SAS and Boeing. The carrier had placed orders for 68 planes from Boeing and 43 with Airbus. The government may give 25 billion rupees of capital to Air India, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on July 16. The airline will ask banks to defer working capital loans due for repayment, return some leased planes and seek credit extensions from state-run oil retailers on jet-fuel purchases, he said. National Aviation Co. of India Ltd., Air India’s parent, had asked for a loan of 27.5 billion rupees and equity infusion of 12.31 billion rupees in the year ended March 31 from the government. To contact the reporter on this story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai at vnair12@bloomberg.net

DTN News: Air India Considers Cancelling Delivery Of Six Boeing Aircraft

DTN News: Air India Considers Cancelling Delivery Of Six Boeing Aircraft

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI, India - July 31, 2009: After coming under attack in Parliament over extravagant booking of aircraft, loss-hit Air India is now having second thoughts on acquisition of 111 aircraft — payments for which have added considerably to its financial woes — besides considering a proposal to cancel delivery of six Boeing aircraft, say sources. Air India operates several variants of the Boeing 777 — the Boeing 777-200, Boeing 777-200ER, Boeing 777-200LR and Boeing 777-300ER. The proposal, made at a recent Air India board meeting, is seen as an attempt to bring down the annual interest burden. These six Boeing aircraft, likely to be B777’s, are part of the total 68 Boeing aircraft ordered by the national carrier. The list price of a single such aircraft varies from $165 million to $200 million. However, the negotiated price for Air India could be much lower because of the huge size of the order. A top airline official told The Indian Express that the airline was now trying to work out the ‘cost economics’ of cancellation of the order. “Since these are firm orders, there are likely to be huge penalties, and the airline has already made some advance payments for acquisition of these aircraft,” said the official. By September-end this year, three Boeing 777’s would be inducted in the fleet, leaving only six Boeing 777’s to be delivered by 2012.

In 2005, Air India had more than doubled the order for aircraft from around 24 to 68 in 2005, which got approved in the same year. The aircraft acquisition plan recently came under attack in Parliament where questions were raised on the rationale behind such a huge order. Sources in the Planning Commission reveal that Air India failed to back the aircraft acquisition plan with a viable business plan.

Currently, for servicing the total aircraft order, which is set to cost the airline around a little over $11 billion, the airline has to shell out $1.2 billion annually as capital repayment and interest. The aircraft acquisition issue also figured prominently in a recent meeting of the Committee of Secretaries, chaired by cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar. A bleak outlook for the aviation sector and slump in passenger traffic have forced most airlines to trim their fleet as they reduce capacity, and even cancel some aircraft deliveries. When contacted, Air India spokesperson Jitendra Bhargav expressed his ignorance on the matter and added that SBI Caps had been given the mandate to draw a financial restructuring plan that would submit its report on all matters including aircraft acquisition. The airline currently has a fleet of 148 aircraft. Earlier, civil aviation minister Praful Patel had said that Nacil’s borrowings had risen steeply from Rs 6,550 crore in November 2007 to Rs 15,241 crore in June 2009. “This has been largely due to servicing of debt on account of purchase of new aircraft as also operating losses which have compounded due to economic recession and high oil prices,” Patel said. The company is likely to post losses of around Rs 5,000 crore for the fiscal 2008-09 and has already exhausted its working capital limit of Rs 16,000 crore.