Mumbai: Going by the current plans, it is likely to enter Air India's (AI) fleet later this year but the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has already caused many a heartbreak and unleashed a battle of sorts among the airline's pilots.
The buzz doing the rounds is about the pilots being selected to fly the Dreamliner. If AI does not choose its pilots judiciously, the cash-strapped airline could end up losing about Rs 10 crore by way of training and retraining pilots for Dreamliner as well as other aircraft.
The civil aviation ministry is reconsidering AI's plan to buy 27 Dreamliners, but in the airline, the fight is on to fly the B787. Many pilots qualify to be selected for training on the B787. In the last few weeks though, many have realized that in a government-run airline like Air India apologies to George Orwell while all pilots are equal, some are more equal than others. "The top brass-chiefs, directors and anyone who can pilot an aircraft-has enlisted to train on the Boeing 787," said an airline source.
The first Boeing 787 training batch drawn up by the airline management comprises 56 commanders and 27 co-pilots. "The commander's list reads like the who's who in AI's top management. The co-pilot's list has sons and daughters of top brass," said the source. For instance: the co-pilot's list has a son and a daughter of two AI general managers; then there is the father-son pair, the father is the chief of a particular department in the airline.
24/07/11 Manju V/Times of India
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