Mumbai: The issue of mixing pilots from Air India and the erstwhile Indian Airlines (IA) on a flight has been a hot potato for the AI management, on which it will have to soon take a bite, as it prepares to launch the Delhi-Sydney schedule later this month.
The cabin crew, operations and engineering departments of the airline are still divided on the lines of narrow body (IA) and wide body (AI) planes. AI will use its latest Boeing 787 on the Delhi-Sydney-Melbourne route. At present, the Boeing 787 is used on the London, Paris, Frankfurt, Birmingham and domestic routes. Pilots of both AI and the erstwhile IA fly the aircraft but never together.
The only exception is training and IA pilots have trained in simulators and done training flights under wide body plane captains. Here, too, there have been problems and IA captains have refused to fly with three AI instructors.
15/08/13 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
The cabin crew, operations and engineering departments of the airline are still divided on the lines of narrow body (IA) and wide body (AI) planes. AI will use its latest Boeing 787 on the Delhi-Sydney-Melbourne route. At present, the Boeing 787 is used on the London, Paris, Frankfurt, Birmingham and domestic routes. Pilots of both AI and the erstwhile IA fly the aircraft but never together.
The only exception is training and IA pilots have trained in simulators and done training flights under wide body plane captains. Here, too, there have been problems and IA captains have refused to fly with three AI instructors.
15/08/13 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
