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747-237 · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 6:47 am Post subject: Air India News -- Part 30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Dreamliner-stripped-for-spares-grounded/articleshow/49082875.cms?prtpage=1

Dreamliner stripped for spares, grounded

September 24, 2015

An Air India Dreamliner (VT-AND) has been stripped of parts to keep the other Boeing 787s flying.

While AI did not comment on this issue, sources say the 2012-make aircraft - whose current list price is almost Rs 1,400 crore - is cooling its heels at Mumbai airport since January.

Boeing confirmed that the aircraft has been grounded since "the first quarter of this year."

AI has been facing problems in getting spares on time for the Dreamliner fleet despite the fact that the planes routinely develop snags and keep needing parts. Subsequently, the grounded plane reportedly has almost 400 spare parts missing. The airline currently has 21 dreamliners which it started getting three years back.

Keeping a new aircraft on ground for so many months means a huge loss for AI in terms of lost revenue. "It is unimaginable that a new plane spends months on ground instead of the airline sweating the asset to the maximum and earning money from it. The aviation ministry had last year asked Boeing to not only make spares available in time but fly them at its cost to wherever an AI Dreamliner is grounded," said a source.

VT-AND has been grounded for nearly nine months making it the longest grounding of any Dreamliner globally. It is way longer than the grounding of all 787s ordered by the US Federal Aviation Administration from January 16, 2013, to April 19, 2013, due to battery overheating issues.

Despite repeated attempts over past few days, AI did not comment on the grounding and neither did it say when was the last time the plane flew. "We are in talks with Boeing to ensure this aircraft gets all spare parts and is flying at the earliest," a senior AI official said.

Boeing's senior vice president (sales for Asia Pacific and India) Dinesh Keskar told TOI that he knew the aircraft is grounded from the first quarter of this year. "The issue is of spare part availability. We went through review of how many parts are needed. A lot been collected by now and is in the store at Mumbai. A handful of parts are remaining. Once all parts are there, Boeing and AI people will install them. The plane will be ready to fly in November."

He admitted: "Certainly it's a long grounding. None of my customers in Asia have any grounding.... We are interested in all planes flying. That's how airlines make money."
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The_Goat · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 12:47 am Post subject:

yashkhullar · Member Joined: 20 Nov 2014 Posts: 44

Does anyone have info on the 77Ws. The Riyadh flights have been moved to the 77L and the London one to the 787. After the Haj season are the 3 77Ws being sold to the Indian Government and would the schedule stay this way? Would the Riyadh rotations stay on the 77Ls? Also how were the First class loads on the LHR flights?

747-237 · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 3:24 pm Post subject:

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150927/PC05/150929549/1536/analysts-skeptical-of-air-india-x2019-s-dreamliner-problems

Analysts skeptical of Air India’s Dreamliner problems

Sep 27 2015

The old service industry adage that the customer is always right apparently doesn’t apply to Air India, according to aviation industry analysts.

Those experts say the carrier’s repeated complaints about Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliners are wearing thin, not that there was much substance to them to begin with.

A report last week by www.dnaindia.com, an online news service, said Air India’s engineers have asked management to hold off on the delivery of any more 787s until myriad problems are fixed. The airline claims to have lost about $27 million over the past year on international routes that use the Dreamliner, with much of those losses attributed to snags that have grounded airplanes.

The Times of India, the country’s largest selling English language newspaper, proclaimed earlier this month that: “After a period of relative calm, Dreamliner snags are back with a vengeance for Air India.”

Saj Ahmad, chief analyst for Strategic Aero Research, said he’s skeptical of the airline’s claims, saying they are more likely due to operator error.

“Air India is an utter farce of an airline,” Ahmad said. “From the ground up, this entire mismanaged entity was way out of its depth in taking the 787 because it’s just so advanced.”

Ahmad said it speaks volumes that none of Boeing’s other 30-plus Dreamliner customers have reported similar problems.

“The only natural conclusion here is that the problem lies solely with this ... airline,” Ahmad said.

Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis for The Teal Group, also questioned the veracity of the carrier’s complaints.

“Since this is Air India, it’s hard to say what is due to maintenance procedures — or even politics — and what is due to issues with the aircraft themselves,” he told The Post and Courier.

Aboulafia said the Dreamliner’s entry into service wasn’t easy, with readiness rates well below typical even for a new program.

“But these problems have been getting better,” he said.

Air India has taken delivery of 21 Dreamliners — all of them Dash-8 models — over the past three years, including a dozen that were built at Boeing South Carolina’s campus in North Charleston. The rest were assembled at the planemaker’s larger sister plant in Everett, Wash. The airline has six more Dreamliners on order.

Boeing spokesman Doug Alder did not respond to a request for comments.

Ahmad, however, didn’t hold back, calling Air India “the bane of today’s 787 operations.”

“It’s a shame Boeing can’t wash their hands of Air India and pretend they didn’t exist,” he said.

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747-237 · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 3:36 pm Post subject:

http://m.firstpost.com/business/lohani-cracks-whip-wants-air-indias-grounded-narrow-bodies-to-fly-soon-2447548.html

Lohani cracks whip, wants Air India's grounded narrow bodies to fly soon

Sep 28, 2015

Air India has been struggling with aircraft availability in its narrow body fleet for quite some time now. On any given day, 8-10 NBs from the fleet of 62 are grounded for lack of spares and other maintenance issues. But this is set to change.

An Air India official told Firstpost that the engineering department has been allocated a "substantial" amount of money for getting the grounded aircraft up and flying. According to this official, at least five more aircraft should be made available in the next two days to take the total to 58-59 daily; already fleet availability is up to 54 aircraft in the last few days.

"The CMD has made it clear to the engineering department that 58-59 aircraft should be available daily by month end. He has allocated a substantial amount to engineering for purchasing spares and other requirements," this official said on condition of anonymity.

The enhanced fleet should be good news for Air India. First, it will ensure better on-time performance and increased frequencies on some sectors.
Second, it will allow the airline to better compete with aggressive private airlines like IndiGo and Jet Airways during the upcoming winter schedule when these airlines are likely to increase domestic flights.

The official quoted earlier said Delhi-Surat-Delhi will now deploy an Airbus 320 family aircraft from Thursday instead of the 70-seater CRJ being used currently. Besides, the airline has recently started Delhi-Lhasa-Delhi flight which is also on the A320 family aircraft. The increased fleet availability should help both these routes.

Air India has been struggling with its Airbus 320 fleet for quite some time. It has seven Airbus 320 aircraft in its fleet which are more than 20 years old. This means every third Airbus 320 aircraft in Air India's fleet of 21 Airbus 320s is an old war horse. Last year, Air India's board of directors had approved of a plan to take eight new Airbus 320 aircraft on lease to ease out these old war horses but only three have been delivered till now.

The availability and condition of Air India's fleet is in focus now, after a recent incident where one of the old aircraft developed hydraulic failure while approaching Delhi on a Varanasi-Delhi flight with 146 passengers on board. The pilot was forced to seek emergency landing at Delhi. Later, there were reports of some sparks from the rear of the aircraft, after landing, which forced the captain to order evacuation using chutes - and lead to some passengers sustaining minor injuries.

New chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani has been flagging various areas of concern as he tried to get Air India back to peak performance. These include:
1. Getting at least 58-59 Airbus 320 family aircraft for flights by the end of the month. This should happen on target. Lohani has also made it clear that the responsibility of keeping aircraft clean lies with the engineering team. This includes seat covers, carpets, curtains, proper upkeep of in-flight entertainment systems etc. Besides, the engineering subsidiary AIESL has to come up with a detailed plan for spending the $300 million raised through ECBs earlier, which Air India's board has already said should be deployed in fleet maintenance. AIESL is also tasked with drawing up a detailed business plan for the Nagpur MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) unit.
2. The commercial department has been tasked with evaluating the entire hub-and-spoke model of Air India. On the critical issue of loss making routes of Air India, the CMD has set up a committee under the chairmanship of GM (revenue management) for evaluating these. The commercial department has also been asked to work on new flights, chart out a yield management strategy and another one for fixing fares.
3. The milestones set under the Turnaround Plan of Air India (which is the basis for annual funds' infusion into the airline by the government) to be monitored by a core team. As per the Turnaround Plan, the airline should have had 72 narrow body aircraft in its fleet by now. It has been looking to lease 19 narrow bodies in all (including the eight 320s) but 14 of these may arrive only by 2017. The airline needs a plan of action much before then, at least for its domestic operations.

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747-237 · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 3:43 pm Post subject:

http://www.businessworld.in/economy-aviation/air-india-relocate-domestic-operations-mumbai-t2-1-oct#sthash.YyWHAiLA.dpbs

Air India To Relocate Domestic Operations In Mumbai To T2 From 1 Oct

Air India, will relocate its domestic operations in Mumbai from Terminal 1A to Terminal 2 (T2), Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Sahar, with effect from 1 October 2015.

With this act, Air India passengers will have the advantage of a smooth and seamless transition with easy connectivity, between domestic and international sectors, all from the same terminal.

The shifting is a part of the phase-wise transition that was planned for T2.

Air India’s domestic operations at T2 will commence with the departure of flight AI 627 from Mumbai to Nagpur at 5.55 am and the arrival of AI 695 from Hyderabad to Mumbai at 7.45 am. On an average, Air India has around 45 departures and an equal number of arrivals, ex-Mumbai.

Passengers are being informed about the change through various channels like the AI website, social media, print media, direction signage at both the terminals, in addition to personalized information.
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The_Goat · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 7:23 pm Post subject:

ssbmat · Member Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 1710

yashkhullar · Member Joined: 20 Nov 2014 Posts: 44

http://www.firstpost.com/business/air-india-nixes-boeing-proposal-on-3-planes-sticks-to-original-order-2448218.html

Looks like AI is getting 3 more 77Ws. What do you think the configuration is going to be like? Or would these planes be sold to the GOI?

megatop747

Incident: Air India B788 at Singapore on Sep 28th 2015, engine shut down in flight

By Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Sep 29th 2015 17:57Z, last updated Tuesday, Sep 29th 2015 17:57Z
An Air India Boeing 787-800, registration VT-ANG performing flight AI-346 from Chennai (India) to Singapore (Singapore), was descending towards Singapore when the crew reported they had an engine (GEnx) oil low pressure indication followed by a zero indication for the engine oil quantity. The crew shut the engine down and continued for a safe landing on Singapore's runway 20C.

The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Singapore 32 hours after landing.

src http://avherald.com/h?article=48d11666&opt=0

747-237 · Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:16 am Post subject:

What is the status of the AI 747s ? Earlier this summer, there were two engine-less 747s parked near the hangars, awaiting sale/scrapping. Last month I only spotted one.
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The_Goat · Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 1:58 pm Post subject:

iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2566

http://www.flyertalk.com/articles/this-airline-is-finally-cracking-down-on-employee-theft.html

I thought they were doing this already, so they start terminating employees only recently !

luvleen · Member Joined: 02 Jul 2012 Posts: 179 Location: Bombay

Air India puts 9 Dreamliners on sale to raise over Rs 7K-crore

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/air-india-puts-9-dreamliners-on-sale-to-raise-over-rs-7k-crore/articleshow/49290092.cms

747-237 · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 12:13 pm Post subject:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/50-emergency-landings-due-to-snags-in-Air-India-fleet/articleshow/49308729.cms

50% emergency landings due to snags in Air India fleet

Oct 11, 2015

Two recent back-to-back emergency landings of Air India flights have put the focus on the efficacy of the national carrier's fleet and maintenance.

With both the landings-on September 7 and October 4-caused by hydraulic failures, the Director General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) and Air India are looking for solutions to prevent any recurrence.

Data sourced from the ministry of civil aviation reveals that Air India has the worst record when it comes to emergency landings caused by technical glitches.

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747-237 · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2015 12:14 pm Post subject:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/air-india-to-cross-train-cabin-crew-for-entire-fleet/articleshow/49308877.cms

Air India to cross-train cabin crew for entire fleet

11 Oct, 2015

In a significant shift from its decades-old practice, Air India will soon start training the cabin crew for all kinds of aircraft rather than keeping a pool of people for a particular fleet.

The move, the first of its kind by any Indian carrier, comes at a time when Air India is battling staff issues as well as poor ontime performance. In recent times, there have also been instances where flights got delayed due to non-availability of the type-rated crew.

With an ambitious long-term perspective and fleet expansion plans, the airline anticipates to add more number of crew in the coming months. At present, it has around 3,500 cabin crew.

Sources said concurrently training the cabin crew for various types of aircraft would provide multiple benefits for the employees including "greater flexibility" in rostering.

Besides, the cabin crew would have satisfaction with the option of flying in international as well as domestic routes, they added.

The entire exercise of cross-training is expected to be complete by December 2016.

Currently, Air India has three types of aircraft -- A-320s, Boeing 777s, 747s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners. There are sixty-five narrow-bodied A-320s, twenty-one wide-bodied Dreamliners, fifteen 777s and five 747s.

The current fleet clocks about 960 flying hours per day and Air India expects the cross-training of cabin crew would push this number higher, sources said.

While A-320 and B-777 planes are required to have at least four cabin crew each, Dreamliner should have a minimum of nine while flying.

Meanwhile, the carrier has managed to bring down the number of employees per aircraft by almost two-thirds to 108 compared to 300 more than two years ago.

The state-owned airline's aircraft-employee ratio stood at 1:108 in September, in turn helping it to significantly save on costs.

This figure translates to 108 employees for every aircraft of Air India, which has fleet of more than 100 planes. The airline has little over 20,000 employees.

The ratio of 1:108 excludes the airline's engineering and ground handling subsidiaries.

Two years ago, this number stood as high as over 300 employees per aircraft and since then the same has been reducing gradually.

Air India is surviving on a Rs 30,000 crore bailout package extended by the previous UPA government in 2012.

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747-237 · Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2015 9:45 pm Post subject:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-india-sued-for-98m-in-us-federal-court-for-breach-of-hajj-contract-300157785.html

Air India Sued for $98M in US Federal Court for Breach of Hajj Contract

Oct. 12, 2015

Dynamic International Airways LLC launched a $97.7 million breach of contract lawsuit against Air India in New York Federal Court.

Air India sub-contracted Dynamic International Airways LLC (a/k/a Dynamic Airways or Dynamic) for the year 2013 and 2014 for carriage of holy pilgrims from India to Saudi Arabia round-trip.

Dynamic carried 47,976 passengers for Hajj 2014 and carried around 6000 passengers for Hajj 2013. Air India owes more than $8.8 million for Hajj 2013 and 2014. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York states that Air India has been using accounts reconciliation in bad faith in order to delay making any payments.

Due to long outstanding amounts, Air India decided that it does not want to continue its future business relationship with Dynamic. Dynamic had a reasonable expectation to collect revenues of around $42 million related to Haj 2015 and $42 million for Haj 2016. Because of Air India's (anticipatory) breach of contract, Dynamic has lost expectation damages of not less than $84 million.

The case is Dynamic International Airways LLC v. Air India Ltd., Case No. 15-cv-7054(PKC), in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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Jaysit · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 4346

AI's Hajj contracts are nothing more than a way for a coterie of babus and their chamchas to make money. They lease these khataaras from these fly-by-night operators even as their own AC sit on the tarmac (or lie cannibalized in their Kalina hangars). Disgraceful bunch.

The_Goat · Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 1:22 pm Post subject:

Jeh · Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 1:39 pm Post subject:

The aircraft in question was a B762. That season, AI also leased A320s from two firms in Gambia and Lithuania Laughing

The Hajj deals are the shadiest parts of the whole AI operation.

abhijith16 · Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 3:13 pm Post subject:

747-237 · Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 6:09 am Post subject:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/business/let-air-india-be-low-cost-carrier-on-some-routes-aviation-ministry/story-bzWbI6sgRBIT55Mz7p1x8M.html

‘Let Air India be low-cost carrier on some routes’: Aviation ministry

Oct 15, 2015

Air India (AI) should be run as a low-cost carrier on some domestic routes, a worried aviation ministry has suggested to the top brass of the debt-laden airline. The suggestion came from aviation secretary RN Choubey during a recent meeting of the Oversight Committee (OC) that monitors AI’s turnaround plan.

AI, a full-service carrier, offers food free of cost to passengers and has a two-class configuration of business and economy class seats on most of its planes that operate on domestic routes unlike low cost carriers.

“(Aviation) Secretary enquired as to why AI cannot be a low-cost carrier,” said the minutes of the July 3 meeting accessed by HT. “Secretary said that on certain sectors AI could be full service carrier while on others it could function as an LCC.”

A couple of years back AI had stopped serving free food to domestic economy passengers on some short-haul routes, a move the airline had estimated would result in annual savings of `100 crore. AI officials informed the OC that “due to criticism” it had to again start serving free food.

While Choubey did not respond, an AI official said the airline was already operating a hybrid system and some of its planes were all-economy.

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747-237 · Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 9:39 pm Post subject:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/women-to-get-25-discount-in-air-india-business-class-115101601118_1.html

Women to get 25% discount in Air India business class

October 16, 2015

Women travellers will get a 25% discount on the basic fare of business class tickets on domestic routes for travel between November 1-December 31. This is amongst the steps undertaken by the airline to boost its business class load factor.

Occupancy in the front-end of the cabin in Air India has been low. Also the airline's market share too is under pressure because of intense competition.

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747-237 · Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2015 10:21 am Post subject:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Flight-ops-hit-as-AI-jet-breaks-down-on-main-runway/articleshow/49418978.cms

Flight ops hit as AI jet breaks down on main runway

Oct 17, 2015

Flight arrivals and departures at the Mumbai airport were delayed by an average of 45 minutes on Friday evening after an aircraft broke down on the main runway, forcing slowdown of operations. Hundreds of passengers were left stranded at the airport as arriving flights were forced to circle for long, which delayed the subsequent departures.

Every Friday, maintenance work is carried out on the main runway which leads to flight delays, especially during the evening peak hour. This Friday though, there were more problems at hand as an Air India Boeing 747 jumbo jet, which was on its way to the airline's maintenance hangar from its parking bay, broke down. The incident took place around 4 pm and the spot where the aircraft (no passengers on board) broke down happened to be the end of runway 27, which is the most used runway of the airport.

"Generally, after maintenance work is over in the afternoon, flight operations are moved from secondary runway 32 to main runway 27 by 4.30 pm every Friday. But today, as the AI aircraft broke down on runway 27, the main runway could not be used till the plane was towed away," said an aviation official, adding that runway 27 was cleared only by 6.30 pm.

Till that time, arrivals and departures operations were handled on the secondary runway, which has lower capacity. The airport has a set of cross runways, comprising a main runway and a secondary runway, and its declared aircraft handling capacity is 43 movements per hour. But that capacity is only when runway 27 is operational. With the main runway unoperational, the airport could not handle peak hour load effectively. "Moreover with the AI jet lying on the end of runway 27, departing aircraft had to back track on runway 32, which meant each aircraft took 1-2 minutes more per take off," the official added.

The cascading effect lasted till late night, mostly hitting domestic flights.

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Jeh · Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:58 am Post subject:

747-237 · Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 4:01 pm Post subject:

Air India W15 Moscow Service Changes

Air India starting this week is reducing operations on Delhi – Moscow Domodedovo for winter season, where it’ll operate 2 weekly flights, instead of 4.
However, the Star Alliance member during peak season will operate 4 weekly flights, from 16DEC15 to 15JAN16.

AI155 DEL1930 – 2320DME 788 15
AI156 DME0100 – 0855DEL 788 26

Source: Airlineroute.net
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747-237 · Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 4:19 pm Post subject:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/air-india-not-to-seek-compensation-from-boeing-for-delayed-deliveries-of-6-dreamliner-aircrafts/articleshow/49445925.cms

Air India not to seek compensation from Boeing for delayed deliveries of 6 Dreamliner aircrafts

19 Oct, 2015

Boeing has delayed deliveries of six Dreamliner aircraft to Air India by more than two years and the airline has decided not to seek compensation. "The deliveries will now begin from November 2016 and go on till August 2018," said a senior Air India official, who did not want to be identified. According to the earlier schedule, deliveries were to start from July 2015 and go on till March 2016.

The state-owned airline currently operates a fleet of 21 Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner aircraft, which were delivered after a delay of over three years. Boeing's compensation was questioned by a Parliamentary committee, which said the airline was paid only for a delay of 180 days.

Air India is not claiming any compensation for the delay in deliveries of these six aircraft.

"The board did discuss the issue of compensation for delay in deliveries but it was finally decided that the compensation would not be sought because the airline has not made any pre-delivery payment for the aircraft," the official said.

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747-237 · Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 5:16 pm Post subject:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/logistics/alliance-air-to-operate-addl-flights-from-hyderabad-to-vijayawada/article7780547.ece

Alliance Air to operate addl flights to Vijayawada

Oct 19:

Alliance Air, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, will operate two additional flights to Vijayawada on October 20-21, 2015 to catch the peak festive season demand, according to a statement.

Alliance Air flight AI 9534 will operate with an ATR-72-600 aircraft and leave Hyderabad at 2 pm to reach Vijayawada at 3 pm.
The return Flight AI 9535 from Vijayawada will leave at 3.30 pm to reach Hyderabad at 4.30 pm.

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747-237 · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 8:01 am Post subject:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/AI-Dreamliner-to-take-off-again-by-month-end/articleshow/49458639.cms

AI Dreamliner to take off again by month-end from Mumbai

Oct 19, 2015

Less than a month after TOI highlighted how an Air India Dreamliner has been grounded at Mumbai airport since the beginning of this year so that spares could be stripped from it to keep other 787s flying, Boeing on Monday assured the Maharaja that the "Christmas tree" will fly again by the month-end.

TOI had frontpaged how the 2012-make Dreamliner (VT-AND), worth Rs 1,400 crore at current price, had been stripped of nearly 400 parts to keep other AI B-787s flying (September 23). The problem arose as Dreamliners keep developing snags and Boeing is unable to supply spares at the speed at which they are required.

Top Boeing officials met aviation ministry brass and AI chairman Ashwani Lohani on Monday. "We have been assured that VT-AND will take to the skies by the month-end. This is one of the longest groundings of a Dreamliner globally," said a senior official.

The new chairman, an engineer, warned Boeing against the unending snags in the Dreamliner. "Lohani has sought an extended guarantee for the B-787 and its parts due to repeated snags in them. He also sought a quick supply of spares from Boeing for these planes. Boeing has, like always, promised to do the needful but it remains to be seen if they will deliver," said the official.

While VT-AND is the longest grounding of a Dreamliner by any airline globally using these planes, it is not the only long grounding that AI has experienced. Another AI Dreamliner (VT-ANI) had also spent over eight months on ground before it was able to fly again earlier this year. Just the time VT-ANI was getting ready to fly again, VT-AND had become a Christmas tree and cannibalised for parts, which led to its grounding since this January.

VT-ANI's long grounding was also because it was cannibalised for parts to keep other AI Dreamliners flying.

"The rate of component failure has been very high on the Dreamliner, too high for a brand new plane. This has been more than the rate at which spare parts are made, so there is a shortage. AI has also been facing a cash crunch, due to which spares could not be procured at the required pace," said a senior official. But why is the Dreamliner facing technical issues, although AI and Boeing say the incidence of snags is slowing down? Sources said AI was among the launch customers and got it in September 2012, just after a Japanese carrier. Being the first of the new generation planes, the planes they got initially had maximum problems.

"Boeing leapfrogged technology with the Dreamliner. ACs in other planes get air from engine bleed but the 787 has a different, cabin air compressor technology. This faces a lot of issues.

Almost everything about the plane is brand new, so like any new plane, there are troubles which Boeing is trying to stabilize," said an AI senior official.

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saravanan92

Hi all,
Looks like AI in the coming winter schedule is making a major rejig of operational aircraft on its existing routes and also its flight rotations/numbers.
Some changes I have noted so far.
1)Seems like no more 788s on DEL-BLR route however all 5 daily services will be operated by A321s(capacity addition/retainment?? im not sure)
2) MAA-DEL A321 replaces A320 on AI 42/43 and A320(All economy) replaces A321 on AI 539/540
3) MAA-BLR-MAA service re-timed and converted to fully domestic and is operated by BLR based A319.
AI 564 BLR- MAA 11:45 12:45
AI 563 MAA-BLR 14:20 15:20
4) BLR-MLE-BLR direct service on A319 resumes. But BLR is taken out from AI 263/264 rotation. Hence the new routing is MAA-TRV-MLE-TRV-MAA. This makes it two daily direct flights on MAA-TRV-MAA
5) BOM-MAA-IXM-MAA-BOM AI671/672 now changed to BOM-MAA-BOM AI 671/672. MAA-IXM-MAA gets new numbers AI581/582. I dont see any flight changes according to the schedule. But I wonder why it has been split. Does it mean pax cannot stay in the same aircraft if they are continuing onward?
6)AI 545/546 - A321 replaces A320(all economy) and is re-timed for operation by an HYD based A/C
7) Weird one AI 572/571 changed to AI 673/93(yes from international terminal) with the schedule postponed by 30 mins from the earlier schedule on both the legs and is operated by A319 from BOM. It also replaces A32S that operates AI 571 - addition of business class.
Other minor changes MAA-CCU A32S replaces A319 (removal of business class)
My comments on the changes
Speculation is AI trying hard to work on OTP. My dad has been saying that the delays have been mostly due to aircraft rotations at MAA. The new schedules ease the burden since services to BLR, HYD and BOM(one) will not use MAA based aircraft that has to arrive from its previous destination. Yes, the A/C usage is reduced at MAA, however for years the narrow body fleet in MAA has been subject to tight schedules which were contributing to delays too and also prevented AI from adding/removing capacity at MAA. I am still confused on how AI is gonna work on the two A321 rotations since the addition of DEL-CMB, A321 on MAA-IXZ was replaced by A320 which acc to me and with my dads info can be a loss(not sure), nevertheless fares are as high as 26k inr one way economy for a 3 month advance booking. Again the new schedule atually under-utilizes one of the A321s at MAA while one performing MAA-CMB-DEL-CMB-MAA(~10.5 hrs, the aircraft is not used from 18:45-06:00) and other performing MAA-DEL-MAA-DXB-MAA(~14.5 hrs)
Eager to hear ur comments on this
Smile

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

lavence7 · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 7:01 pm Post subject:

A lot of schedule/equipment changes from BOM also, especially to non-metros in the morning hours. Realised this while checking for flights to IXE, time has changed to 10:15am and is now an A319. Flight to TRV, CJB, VNS, LKO, and more from BOM, all have changes of some sort or the other. And fares have gone up too weirdly because of down-gauge on some routes.

747-237 · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 9:31 am Post subject:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/alliance-air-suspends-services-to-puducherry/article7787074.ece

Alliance Air suspends services to Puducherry

October 21, 2015

Alliance Air, the lone flight operator at the Puducherry airport has suspended its services from October 15, just six months after it had begun.

Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, had been operating flights to and from Bengaluru on its 48-seater ATR 42-320 on all days of the week except Wednesdays. It had started its operations on April 14 this year. The last time the Puducherry airport was operational was when Spice Jet had flights to and from Bengaluru for just over a year, from January 2013 to January 2014.

For over a year, Puducherry had remained off the air connectivity map. In October, the Government had introduced a scheme of Viability Gap Funding under the umbrella of tourism promotional initiatives, wherein the Puducherry government offered Rs. 1,000 each for an aggregate of 200 seats on a daily basis, subject to a cap of 50 seats or a sum of Rs. 50,000 per fixed wing or rotary aircraft.

Among the airlines that evinced interest, it was Alliance Air that ventured into operations.

However, over the last few days, Air India has stopped taking bookings for the sector on its website. The airline had not issued any statement regarding suspension of its services either.

When contacted, officials at the airport stated there had been some ‘payment issues’, and hence flight services had been suspended for now. They also seemed unaware if flight services will resume anytime soon.

“The suspension of services is temporary. We will ensure that flight operations will resume shortly, especially with tourism season set to peak,” Manoj Parida, Chief Secretary said.

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abhijith16 · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 5:46 pm Post subject:

iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2566

lavence7 · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 8:54 pm Post subject:

15a · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 271 Location: Bangalore

lavence7 · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 10:14 pm Post subject:

A new BOM-CCJ as well:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/air-india-to-operate-daily-flight-to-mumbai-from-kozhikode/articleshow/49484928.cms

jbalonso777 · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 4:53 am Post subject:

dan · Member Joined: 18 Dec 2012 Posts: 61

Saddened to know that my usual exit from BOM on AI675 is gonna be on an A319 too.
DAn Sad