New Delhi: Celebrating the comeback of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner back into operations mode, Air Indian on Wednesday said the Dreamliners would form the mainstay of the revival of fortune plans of the national carrier replacing the fuel guzzling B-777s.
Air India chairman and managing director, Rohit Nandan made this announcement at the re-launch of the two Dreamliner flights from Delhi to Bangalore and Kolkata here. While AI-803 made an early morning roundtrip to Bangalore with 156 passengers and crew on board, AI-020 was operated to Kolkata in the afternoon. "We are replacing all our B-777s with which we have been operating our long-haul flights. The Dreamliners are a game-changer for us as this aircraft will improve our revenues over the years. We will either sell or lease them. We are in the market talking to prospective clients but can't disclose anything more as it's a commercial matter. We are already in discussion with Boeing to help us in this matter but no time limit can be set for completion of the process of disposing off these aircraft," he told reporters here.
Boeing's senior vice president Dinesh Keskar was also present at the press conference and talked about the refit of new batteries in each of the 50 B-787s which were grounded worldwide since January 16 after two battery-fire incidents involving these planes of two Japanese carriers. "We are confident that the 787s are safe and we stand behind its overall integrity," Mr. Keskar remarked.
15/05/13 The Hindu
