Delhi becomes Asian launch destination for the new "Queen of the Skies" and airline's new Business Class product Bengaluru to follow soon.
Two custom-made B777 aircraft, which will be used to fly Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top Indian dignitaries, are likely to be delivered by Boeing to Air India by September, senior officials said on Monday. In October last year, government officials had said that the delivery of these two planes, which are earmarked for VVIP travel only, would be done by July.
The plane was scheduled to arrive in India during the first half of this week, the officials noted. Senior officials of the national carrier reached the US earlier this month to receive the plane from aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the officials said.
The plane was scheduled to be delivered by aircraft manufacturer Boeing to Air India in July but its delivery was delayed twice --once in July for a few weeks due to COVID-19 pandemic and then in August for a few weeks due to technical reasons -- the officials noted.
Tata Group-owned Air India is considering buying more than 200 new planes with 70 per cent of them being narrow-bodied aircraft, aviation industry sources said on Sunday. While Air India has zeroed in on Airbus's A350 wide-bodied aircraft for the procurement, the talks with Airbus and Boeing for narrow-bodied aircraft is still on, they said. A wide-bodied plane like Airbus A350 has a bigger fuel tank that allows it to travel longer distances such as the India-US routes.
The two new B777 planes will come to India from US facility of Boeing by July next year. They will have the call sign 'Air India One'. Only IAF pilots will be flying the two new aircraft for PM, president and vice president.
Cheetah will have to spend their entire air transit period empty stomach, a senior Indian forest department official said on Tuesday.
The Tata Group-owned Air India has decided to procure its maiden batch of wide-bodied A350 aircraft of Airbus and the first plane is likely to be delivered to the airline by March 2023, sources have said.
The first plane -- Air India's jumbo B747 aircraft carrying 211 students, 110 working professionals and three minors-- reached Delhi around 7.30 am and another flight of the airline would leave the national capital for the Chinese city in the afternoon.
Air India One is the call sign for the VVIP aircraft used by the president, vice president and prime minister.
Air India One aircraft is exclusively for the President, Vice President and prime minister. The first of the two VVIP aircraft Air India One arrived in India earlier this month.
The flight arrived at Wuhan's Tianhe International Airport on Friday evening. While the official number of students to be airlifted in the two flights is not known, Indians who reached the Wuhan airport on Friday said they were told that 374 were expected to be airlifted by the Air India flight. India has taken an undertaking from the Indians travelling in the two flights that they would be quarantined for 14 days after their arrival, besides undergoing special checks at the Wuhan airport.
B747-8 introduction marks Asia launch of airline's all-new Business Class.
So far about 124 positive cases have been reported in a host of countries, including India where the first case was confirmed in Kerala.
India is the first Asian country where Lufthansa will deploy its latest fleet member the B747-800.
An engine of a Riyadh-bound Air India plane with 229 people on board caught fire on Friday while taxiing at the Mumbai airport, forcing it to abort take-off and evacuation of passengers through emergency exit chutes.
On Sunday, India airlifted a second batch of 323 stranded Indians and seven Maldivian citizens from coronavirus-hit Wuhan city, taking the total number of people evacuated to 654.
Wide-body aircraft like B747 and A350 have a bigger fuel tank and can therefore travel longer distances in comparison to narrow-body aircraft like B737 and A320. A wide-body aircraft also needs a longer runway length to take off or land. The table top runway 10 of the Kozhikode airport is approximately 2,700 metres long. Wide-body aircraft operations were permitted at this airport from 2019.
This is the third time this month that the national carrier has invited bids for leasing out aircraft.
The flights, one each of private full-schedule carriers Kingfisher Airlines (A320) and Jet Airways (B747) will touch down on South Asia's longest runway -- 4,260 metres -- at 4.15 and 4.20, respectively. The first commercial airline to take off on midnight of March 15 is reported to be the German carrier Lufthansa.
The six students may have to undergo tests to determine whether they have symptoms of the coronavirus. Ahead of the evacuation, the Indian Embassy had informed the Indians that they will be tested before the flight and undergo 14 day quarantine after reaching India.
Air-India has issued tenders to dry-lease two to four Boeing 747-400 combi aircraft for its own long-haul operations and another eleven Boeing 737-800s for its new subsidiary, Air-India Charters Limited.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes on Tuesday offered to replace the aircraft leased by Air-India from South Korea with new generation ones at a 'great price' and said Indian Airlines would save over Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) if it bought planes from it.
The revised check-in baggage limit is effective from Saturday
The virus, which has infected more than 14,562 people, continues to spread beyond China.
After Singapore Airlines and Emirates, German carrier Lufthansa on Saturday launched daily services of its super jumbo Airbus A-380s between Delhi and Frankfurt.
Apart from the main company, five of Air India's subsidiaries and a joint venture firm have been included in the strategic sale plan.
Till high school, his medium of learning was Marathi. Later, he completed his doctorate under Neil Armstrong's guidance. He has travelled to close to 50 countries, sold $350 billion worth of aircraft. Anjuli Bhargava meets Boeing SVP Dinesh Keskar.
With introduction of double-decked Airbus A380, the whole first class space has undergone transformation.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances