Mumbai: The Dreamliner will take to the skies again. The Federal Aviation Administration has approved the modification of batteries of the Boeing 787 plane. After a three-month wait, Air India will put the planes into operations from mid-May, on completion of the modification process. Separately, the national carrier is demanding $90-100 million in compensation from Boeing for the loss due to grounding, airline sources said.
Boeing did not respond to an email on the issue of compensation.
Air India has six Boeing 787s, which it flew on domestic routes and to Paris, Frankfurt and Dubai. It will have to wait for Director General of Civil Aviation Arun Mishra's nod to use the planes for global flights. Mishra is of the view Air India use the plane on domestic routes when it starts 787 flights. "We feel initially the plane be flown on two-three-hour domestic routes instead of seven-eight hour global ones,'' he said. It will be easier to respond to an emergency situation if the aircraft is flown in India, he added.
20/04/13 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
