Air India to get its 23rd Boeing 787 in Jan 2017

The Dollar Business Bureau

Air India will conclude the procurement of 27 Boeing 787 aircraft before April 2017, and in early January, it will take delivery of the 23rd Boeing Dreamliner.

“We will be taking delivery of 23rd B-787 Dreamliner on January 9 and hope to have the last batch of four more Dreamliners by the end of this fiscal year. That will have us completing the process that started more than a decade ago in 2006," Vinod Hejmadi, Finance Director, Air India, told PTI.   

In 2016, American aviation major delivered only two Dreamliners to Air India against the plan of three. Boeing was supposed to give the delivery of the 23rd plane in the month of November or December. In January 2006, Air India had put an order of around 68 aircraft with the Boeing, making it one of the first customer to  place an order for the ‘game-changing aircraft’.

The mega order by Air India included 27 B-787s or Dreamliners and 41 B-777s and B-737-800s for a whopping amount of Rs.64,000 crore. However, the global financial crisis in 2008 and the recession worldwide inordinately delayed the delivery of the aircraft and the B-787s first batch was delivered only in 2015.

The extended delay in delivery of aircraft sank the airline into a cesspool of loans and poor revenues due to the crisis in the world aviation market. But the more worrisome thing was the recurring technical glitches in the aircraft which were sold by Boeing, which had for several months grounded the whole fleet.

At present, the national carrier has in its fleet 22 B-787 aircraft that are used for long-haul routes.