Air India Dreamliner News

After a report claimed that two senior Air India flight attendants were sacked as they refused to change their statement on a technical glitch in the door of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner last year, the airline on Friday said the said cabin crew members were terminated for their “misconduct and behaviour and continuing to falsify critical information during the course of an investigation”. 

Facing frequent technical problems in its Dreamliner fleet, Air India has found itself in a spot as absence of contractual provisions is hindering the national carrier's efforts to get financial compensation from aircraft maker Boeing.

For the first time since merger of Indian Airlines into Air India, the national carrier is likely to report an operating profit of about Rs six crores in the current fiscal, owing to a combination of factors including lower fuel costs and Dreamliner operations, among others.

Air India has mopped up Rs 7,000 crore by selling nine of its 21 Dreamliner planes to a Singaporean lessor, which it has taken back on lease from the company under an SLB arrangement.

Faced with frequent grounding of its "game changer" Dreamliner Boeing 787-800 aircraft due to glitches, national carrier Air India is likely to hold a meeting with Boeing officials here next week to discuss the issue, sources said Wednesday.

More than 20 pilots of Air India's Dreamliner planes are planning to leave the national carrier as many of them seek greener pastures with private airlines.

Air India has so far acquired 18 Dreamliner aircraft costing over USD two billion or about Rs 12,700 crore and spent more than Rs 97 crore on their maintenance since 2012-13, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said Monday.

The state-run airline had placed orders for 68 aircraft with Boeing in January, 2006, including for 27 Dreamliners and 41 B-777s and B-737-800s. It had taken the delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner in September, 2012.

Air India is proposing to shift from sale and leaseback to outright purchase of 15 of the 27 Dreamliner aircraft it has ordered, in a bid to save about USD 225-300 million as part of the turnaround plan.

Air India's spate of trouble with its Dreamliner fleet continued Friday as the airline was forced to cancel its Melbourne-Delhi flight and delay the departure of its Singapore-Chennai service by over six hours.

In yet another incident of rodent menace onboard flights, a rat briefly distracted the attention of a pilot of an Air India flight enrouted to London from New Delhi. The unprecedented incident reportedly took place when the pilot of the flight spotted a rat under the rudder pedal in the cockpit.

Air India has spent USD1.80 billion in acquiring 16 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in the last three financial years.

Star Alliance network counts 27 member airlines, offering more than 18,500 daily flights serving 1,316 destinations in 192 countries.

Air India suffered a double whammy once again when two of its Dreamliners reported serious faults just before take off from here for Birmingham and Sydney and had to be grounded, airline sources said today.