Air India successfully restarted commercial operations with the Boeing 787 aircraft with the first flight taking off from Delhi to Bangalore at 6.35 am.

Airlines sources said, there were 156 passengers on board AI 803 which was commandeered by Capt Yadav. Later in the day the airline Chairman and Managing Director, Rohit Nandan and the airlines entire board will fly between Delhi and Kolkata.

The six 787 aircraft in the airline fleet were grounded on January 17. The grounding was lifted earlier this month.

Air India Chairman and Managing Director, Rohit Nandan, said today that the airline hoped to restore all the Boeing 787 services by first week of June. Addresssing a press conference here, he said that the airline will be adding one more Dreamliner this month.

Before the grounding, Air India operated the aircraft on flights from Delhi to Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Besides, the aircraft were also used on services connecting Delhi with Dubai, Frankfurt and Paris.

Boeing officials said that the battery change on the B787 added about 100 pounds to the weight of the aircraft, which was just about equal to the weight of one passenger bag.

According to Air India CMD, the airline has about 39,000 employees of whom at least 7,700 will retire in the next five years. He added that 26,000 were regular employees while about 13,000 were contractual. Nandan says that at least 15,000 employees will be transferred to two new subsiadiaries that have just been created.

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