New Delhi: Air India has decided to sell five out of its eight Boeing 777-200LR aircraft owing to change in market dynamics due to global recession, steep increase in fuel prices and poor yields on non-stop routes, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
“Air India is planning to sell its B777-200LR (long range) aircraft. Air India had inducted eight such aircraft between 2007 and 2010,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation, K C Venugopal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
He said the planes were inducted to cater to ultra long range non-stop operations between India and the US.
“Due to steep increase in fuel prices, some of the ultra long operations like Bengaluru to San Francisco never commenced. Further, the market dynamics changed significantly due to the global recession.
“It was found that the yield from non-stop routes of B777-200LR was poor,” the Minister said, adding, hence, it was decided to sell five of these aircraft to reduce the loan burden.
08/05/13 PTI/Business Line
