Air India’s fleet structure is a lot different today than what it was just a couple of years ago. Several of its planes, both widebody and narrowbody, were gathering dust at airports because the company didn’t have enough funds to get the parts needed to fly them again.
With the Tatas in the picture, the funding issue was resolved, and the planes were swiftly given a new lease on life. But the airline’s CEO recently told at an event just how much was required to make the airline's grounded Dreamliners airworthy again.
At the IATA AGM in Istanbul, Air India’s Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson spoke about the challenges of getting the carrier’s grounded Boeing 787 fleet back in the air. His answer was in response to a question about the current supply-chain issues, and he explained how many spare parts were required to make Air India’s several 787s airworthy again, adding,
“We’re noticing it most acutely because we had 13 [Boeing] 787s grounded for many years as a consequence of Air India not having the funds to pay for spare parts, [so it was] robbing aircraft to keep others flying. There were 30,000 spare parts we needed to procure to get these aircraft up and running.”
Air India’s aircraft saw significant neglect when it was a state-run carrier. Mounting debt and poor finances meant that its network was affected due to its grounded fleet. The planes that were flying also had substandard cabins, with passengers often complaining of poor in-flight experience, especially on long-haul flights.
06/06/2023 Gaurav Joshi/Simple Flying
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