US transportation authorities are launching a review of the Dreamliner, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The national carrier is surviving on a Rs 30,000-crore (Rs 300-billion) bailout package.
The CMD's focus on raising employee morale and cutting costs is paying off. The airline's operating losses have shrunk and earnings are looking up
Within days of deciding to sell and leaseback the first seven Boeing 787 Dreamliners it will receive till this June, Air India has offered to lease five of its eight Boeing 777-200 planes for 8-10 years, officials said.
Apparently, the losses to the airline due to this scam are now running into crores of rupees.
'It is very clear that Air India cannot be managed by the government.' 'Air India should be run as a separate profit entity.'
The last date to submit bids is March 17 but the deadline could be extended if there are requests from potential bidders.
Air India's decision to buy five Boeing 787-9 is illogical.
The Air India delivery would follow the first delivery to Japanese airline Air Nippon Airways, slated for the third quarter of this year, Boeing India President Dinesh Keskar said in Bengaluru.
Price appreciation since the aircraft order in 2005 could yield Rs 7,200-crore gain.
The Tata group may have to deploy upwards of $1 billion to improve the airline's passenger reservation system, upgrade and refurbish Air India's fleet, primarily the wide-body aircraft which are the mainstay for the airline's international operations, people in the know said. While the group has not yet decided on how it intends to integrate Air India with its existing airlines AirAsia India and Vistara, sources said the first task will be to refinance Air India's existing loans, upgrade its aircraft gradually, and rewrite multiple business contracts with vendors and suppliers. "They will have to do 100 things to stabilise the airline and will have to put in a lot of money," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said, confirming that many aircraft are grounded.
Air India and Indian Airlines merged in 2007.
The Dreamliner will allow Air India to finally match the right kind of routes with the right kind of planes, while launching new ones. Some say it won't solve the airline's problems.
In a bid to slash costs, Air India has hedged 10,000 barrels of jet fuel for its aircraft this month, four weeks after its Board gave a nod to the move.
Cumulative losses after Dreamliner launch stand at Rs 80 crore.
There were many who had reposed faith in the Narendra Modi government for expeditious action but are today beginning to feel disillusioned, notes Jitender Bhargava.
The carrier expects to restart Dreamliner operations for domestic flights by mid-May, Ajit Singh said.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing the incident of an Air India flight, AI 123, from New Delhi to Rome losing radio contact over Italy on October 16.
Last October, the national carrier sold five planes of the same type to Etihad Airways for about $350 million.
Air India pilots and crew often play musical chairs, leading to a substantial revenue loss for the airline in an inefficiently managed set-up
Air India has been in the red since the merger of then Air India and Indian Airlines in 2007.
An additional lease rental of Rs 200 crore on nine Boeing 787 Dreamliners was the reason for ending in the red this quarter, Arindam Majumder reports from New Delhi.
The airline asserted that the incident "did not affect the flight safety of any crew"
Air India's new Boeing 787 Dreamliner will start flying on domestic routes from September 19, with the airline hoping that the fuel-efficient aircraft will bring back its good old 'Maharaja' days by saving costs.
"The deliveries of all 787 dreamliners will start from the second quarter of the next financial year and will complete by 2014. These fuel-efficient aircraft will help us reduce costs of our long-haul operations," said an Air India official.
The announcement by Air India CMD Rohit Nandan came on a day when two of the airline's six Dreamliners resumed commercial operations and operated regular flights from Delhi to Bengaluru and Kolkata.
With the plane experiencing problems one after another, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said there were no safety issues and the faults would be worked out.
To sell five Boeing 777s, replacing these with cheaper aircraft
Grounding increases govt carrier's fuel cost by Rs 40 lakh daily, forces changes in schedules.
Boeing Corp. will on Sunday roll out its latest offering - the Boeing 787 Dreamliner - billed as the most economical and fuel efficient jet that will soon make its debut in India with top airlines Air India and Jet Airways placing orders for 37 jets.
The entire 50-strong global fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, including six of Air India, were grounded on Thursday after US regulator FAA asked airlines to stop their operations temporarily till a battery fire risk was corrected.
Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a long-range, mid-size wide-body, twin-engine jet airliner.
The company has dismissed 194 cabin crew and 11 pilots over past year for unauthorised absence and such reasons.
On Monday night, Air India hosted a dinner Melbourne for the Indian diaspora and Australian leader and government officials to mark its launch in Victoria.
At present, Air India offers eight first class, 35 business class and 195 economy class seats in its Boeing 777 200-LRs.
An Air India Dreamliner, with 184 passengers and crew onboard operating on London-Delhi route, made "priority" landing at the IGI Airport after some warning lights indicating problem with the braking system blipped in the cockpit.
Air India has deferred inducting the 16th Dreamliner into its fleet as the aircraft experienced technical trouble during recent test flights in Seattle headquarters of the US manufacturer Boeing.
The national carrier, which had placed orders for 27 Dreamliners in 2006, has so far taken the delivery of 13 aircraft.
US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has asked Air India to avoid flying its Dreamliner planes near thunderstorms as it enhanced the risk of icing on engines and the airline has changed its operating procedures accordingly.
Aviation regulator DGCA has found "human error" among others as the cause of an incident at the Bengaluru airport two years ago involving an Air India Dreamliner plane, in which the aircraft's fuselage panel had fallen off at runway during landing.
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