Air India prepares for Dream flight

Air India and India will keep their date with the latest civil aircraft — the Boeing 787.

Popularly known as the Dreamliner, the first of the 27 aircraft ordered by Air India will join its fleet either towards the end of this month or early next month. The addition of the new aircraft to Air India's fleet comes after a delay of about four years. The reasons for the delay include production issues and strikes by pilots of both Air India and the erstwhile Indian on who should be allowed to fly the plane.

The Boeing 787 has been built to fly on long-haul international routes. An aircraft can seat 210-250 passengers and fly 14,200-15,200 km. On its part, Air India will seat 238 passengers in economy and 18 in business class in the planes that it has ordered. The Air India aircraft can fly between 9,500 km and 14,000 km, sources said.

long-haul routes

To begin with, Air India will use the two aircraft that will join the fleet to operate flights between metro cities. Officials said these won't be special flights but revenue flights. The idea is to operate the Dreamliner on one of the daily frequencies that operate between metros.

For example, between Delhi and Mumbai where the airline offers 17 flights a day, it will use the Dreamliner according to its current schedule.

The use of Dreamliner between metros will ensure enough of a crew resource so that eventually the aircraft can be deployed on international long-haul flights. The large number of flights that the airline operates between metros will ensure quick training for its pilots.

Senior airline executives explained that if the new aircraft are deployed on international long-haul routes such as operating flights to the US, Europe and Canada, it will take much longer to build the crew resource.

The plan is to deploy the Boeing 787 aircraft on metro routes for 6-12 weeks from mid-June. The international long-haul debut for Air India's Boeing 787 is expected in August, possibly on August 15 with flights to Australia.

Lower fuel use

Orders for the 27 aircraft were placed by Air India in January 2006 as a part of the 68 aircraft that the airline ordered at a combined list price of $11 billion. The second Dreamliner which is expected to join the fleet soon after the first will be flown to Mumbai. In preparation for the induction of the new aircraft, Air India has already sent 38 pilots to train to fly the new aircraft.

The pilots sent for training abroad will take care of cockpit crew requirements for the first five aircraft of which Air India will take delivery this year. Air India will become the third airline globally after All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines to operate this aircraft. And both the airline and the manufacturer, the US-based Boeing are promising a new flying experience on the aircraft.

Wider seats and aisles, bigger windows and quieter cabins are all being touted as the hallmarks of the aircraft. The Boeing India President, Dr Dinesh Keskar, also told Business Line that the aircraft recycles air inside the cabin every hour, thereby ensuring that flyers do not catch any bugs from their co-flyers.

But on a more serious note for the airlines that operate the Boeing 787, the aircraft promises 20 per cent lower fuel consumption per passenger than the other same-size planes that operate worldwide today. In addition, it is also said to offer more cargo capacity thereby opening a new revenue stream for airlines.

Further, since the aircraft is largely built with composites it leads to, among other things, a reduction in its weight and resistance to fatigue and corrosion, thus cutting down its operating and maintenance costs.

The savings in operations probably explains why Japan Airlines is using this aircraft on four of the five weekly flights that it operates to Delhi. This despite the Boeing 787 seating almost 60 passengers less than the Boeing 777 that the Japanese carrier operated to Delhi earlier.

COMMENT NOW