AI blames Boeing for financial woes

The Air India's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Arvind Jadhav, has blamed Boeing's inability to deliver the Boeing 787 as one of the factors for the airline's poor financial performance.
In the deposition he made before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU), he said that not operating the Boeing 787 was one of the main reasons for the losses.
“..I am not able to run profitably now on Gulf areas because I am using the smaller aircraft where I can use a larger aircraft. I am not able to run the Bangkok-Shanghai, Bangkok-Tokyo and other routes where the B 787 can work beautifully...” he said.
He also said that a 787 would have given around four times as much return as the 777.
Air India has around 15 Boeing 777s and has placed orders for 27 Boeing 787s. There has been a delay in the delivery of the latter.
Could Air India have chosen some other aircraft, such as the Airbus 340?, COPU asked NACIL.
NACIL, in a written reply, said, “...The fuel efficiency of the B 787 aircraft was found to be better than that of the competitor A330-200 by 17 per cent.”
18/03/10 Business Line

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Categories: Foreign Mar 2010, NACIL Mar 2010