The Hindu Business Line : Air-India to dry lease three Boeing-777s

THE Air-India board, which met here on Wednesday, has approved the dry leasing of three Boeing-777 aircraft. These aircraft will be received by the airline between December 2004 and March 2005.

According to an airline spokesperson, the delivery of these aircraft will enable the airline to ramp up services to Europe and the US this winter.

The aircraft will be deployed on the India-London sector as well as the India-Frankfurt-US sector.

The spokesperson added that with the induction of the B-777s, the airline would add three more services to the US, taking the total to 28 by the end of March 2005. The airline currently operates 25 flights each week to the US.

The airline, he said, had increased the number of flights to the US by 130 per cent since December 2002.

He added that since Air-India has never flown the Boeing 777, it would initially take on foreign pilots to fly these aircraft. Indian pilots were also being trained to operate these aircraft and would initially fly as co-pilots on these flights.

The spokesperson pointed out that the domestic airlines had also sought the services of foreign pilots to tide over the shortage of trained pilots for certain aircraft types.

The airline had earlier this month taken delivery of the second Boeing 747-400, which has been taken on dry lease.