The Hindu Business Line : Delay in delivery of B787 to AI will be less than 6 months

New Delhi, Oct. 24 Air India has pushed back the launch of domestic operations by the low-cost airlines, Air India Express which was earlier scheduled to begin from this month. The airline is to launch a three-times-a-week service on the Jaipur-Dubai sector from the end of the month, sources said.

The airline has also decided to operate a non-stop flight between Delhi and New York from February instead of January as was planned earlier. Air India planned to use the third and fourth Boeing 777-200 Long Range aircraft that are being acquired as part of the 68 aircraft deal to start the non-stop flights between Delhi and New York.

Meanwhile, the US-based aircraft manufacturing major, Boeing has informed Air India that there would be a delay of less than six months in the Boeing 787 aircraft to be delivered to the airline, sources said.

Earlier this month, Boeing announced a delay of six months in its planned initial deliveries of the Boeing 787 due to continued challenges in completing assembly of the first airplanes. “Deliveries of the Boeing 787 are now slated to begin in late November or December 2008, versus an original target of May 2008. First flight is now anticipated around the end of the first quarter 2008,” Boeing said in a statement.

Initially, Air India was to receive the first of the 27 Boeing 787 aircraft in the third quarter of next year, which would now get pushed back by a few months.

“The delay in delivery will be less than six months. The airline has not yet announced any date or routes on which these aircraft would be deployed so the delay should not affect us,” sources added. Initially, the airline was planning to deploy this aircraft to operate flights to Australia and Europe.

Air India inducted another aircraft into its fleet with an Boeing 777-300 Extended Range aircraft being delivered to the airline. The aircraft is to be utilised to operate flights to London.