AI plans to reschedule 3 intl flights

Mumbai: In a bid to make better use of its existing fleet, national carrier Air India is looking to work around the schedules of three of its 777 aircraft at New York’s John F Kennedy (JFK) and Newark Liberty International Airport.
Currently, these aircraft have a turnaround anywhere between 8 hours and 14 hours as compared to the global average turnaround of 3 hours. Turnaround refers to the time that an aircraft spends between landing and the next take-off.
For instance, Air India has Mumbai-New York-Mumbai flight that arrives to JFK at 7.10 am and returns at 9.30 pm, implying a layover of over 14 hours. Similarly, a Delhi-New York-Delhi flight, which arrives to JFK at 6 am flies out at 5:05 pm, translating to over a 11 hour layover.
As a rule of thumb in the industry, an aircraft has an optimum economic utilisation of around 4,000 hours. At a price of around $250 million per aircraft, the airline, it is estimated, could save over Rs 2,400 crore at current exchange rates. A detailed email sent to the Air India spokesperson seeking comments on the issue remained unanswered.
The total number of aircraft with Air India (which includes owned and leased) is 155. It has ordered 111 new aircraft and has already taken deliveries for 49 planes, which are worth over Rs 14,000 crore.
13/07/09 Mithun Roy/Economic Times

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Categories: Air India - International Jul 2009, Foreign Jul 2009, NACIL Jul 2009