Comments
The cash-strapped national carrier, Air India, plans to start a low-cost domestic airline from this winter. The company will, however, have to wait for another two months before it receives the Dreamliner B787.
Airline sources said that, it is likely to receive first two Boeing 787 only by December and not by October. The company has already suffered revenue loss of Rs 6,000 crore because of the delay.
Now the company is negotiating with Boeing for compensation. It aims to get compensation between $0.5 billion and $0.75 billion.
Air India has ordered for 27 B787 planes worth $3.5 billion. Delivery of these planes has already been delayed by over two years. The current delay in getting the aircraft is due to the delay in getting the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) approvals.
The medium haul, medium capacity plane is to be deployed first on the Delhi-Singapore route. Then the additional aircraft sourced are likely to be used on Delhi-Kuala Lumpur, Delhi-Hong Kong, Delhi-Jakarta, Delhi-Frankfurt and Delhi-Osaka routes.
“Since, the company has already phased out 21 of the 22 medium haul, medium capacity aircraft Airbus 310, it had to withdraw services on routes like Malaysia,” said sources.
Medium capacity, medium-haul route is a flight that takes between 3.5 hours and 8-9 hours, and is considered to be major cash generator for any airline.
Talking about the proposal for a low-cost arm, sources said the airline plans to start the service with 15 turbo props in winter. Its subsidiary Alliance Air will be converted into a low-cost arm. It is awaiting clearance from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The company aims to include 40 aircraft, including 30 turboprops in its fleet for low cost domestic and 40 aircraft for low cost international arm Air India Express by 2019. Most of these planes will be taken on lease.
Rumours on Jadhav
The Air India management refused to clear the air on the speculations that the Chairman, Mr Arvind Jadhav, may be removed. The market was ripe with rumours on Monday that the Government may remove Mr Jadhav.
Sources said since he has been appointed for a period of three years till May 2, 2012 or till further order and since no new order has been issued, they would not like to comment.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.