AI to use Dreamliners on metro routes in peak hours

New Delhi: Being a desi full service carrier ( FSC) is no longer enough. Tata-Singapore Airlines' soon-to-be-launched JV Vistara's announcement of introducing "uber luxury" has led to Air India and Jet joining the race to be the best in the full service segment. While which airline emerges ahead remains to be seen, the consumer is the clear winner in this race.

Air India wants Boeing to give more compensation for the grounding of Dreamliners

New Delhi: Perturbed by the recurring glitches in its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, Air India's management has asked Boeing to compensate for the grounding of the aircraft due to these problems and the subsequent loss of revenue because of bad publicity. These compensations would be over and above the demand for initial deliveries not being as fuel-efficient as promised, which is being negotiated.
Air India (AI) asked for this compensation in its meeting with Dinesh Keskar, senior vice-president, Boeing India, in the beginning of August. "The faults with Dreamliners are just refusing to die and we are facing a lot of losses due to aircraft on the ground, adverse publicity in media that takes away a lot of our passengers. We have asked Boeing to compensate us for the same," said a senior AI official.

Dreamliner Woes: India's Aviation Minister To Meet Boeing Execs

New Delhi:  With the Boeing 787 Dreamliner continuing to give sleepless nights to Air India (AI), aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati has decided to take matters into his own hands.

Aviation ministry sources said Raju would soon be summoning top Boeing officials for a meeting to discuss the unending glitches with the Dreamliner that have taken away much of the sheen off AI's newest aircraft.

Till June, 318 cases of delays had been reported due to technical snags in the Dreamliner. The Dreamliner was inducted into AI's fleet in September 2012.

Dreamliners or Nightmares: Why Has India bought the troubled Boeing 787

Despite more than a decade to work out problems and an estimated $20 billion to build it, Boeing’s 787 aircraft is still plagued by issues. Ever since 787s finally began flying in 2011, there have been technical and mechanical problems, from software bugs and engine defects to faulty wiring, trouble with hydraulics and fuel tank leaks.
Dreamliners bought by Air India (AI) have a troubled functional history; in the latest reported incidence of malfunctioning on 25 July 2014, Boeing Dreamliners operated by Air India reported serious faults just before the takeoff from New Delhi to Birmingham and Sydney. Air India flight Number AI 113 flying to Birmingham experienced a technical snag of a most unusual nature when the flight deck doors failed to shut properly. Despite repeated efforts, the problem could not be fixed and eventually Air India had to arrange another Dreamliner to fly the already harassed 126 passengers to Birmingham. The flight, scheduled to depart at 13:35 hours, was delayed by 90 minutes.

Air India blues: 145 Dreamliner delays by over an hour in 181 days

New Delhi: This is a shocker that Air India was completely unprepared for. From January to June this year, six days a week saw an AI flight to be operated on the Dreamliner getting delayed by at least an hour.

Or simply put, so far this year AI saw only one day a week when all its Boeing 787 flights took off within an hour of their schedule departure time. A flight getting delayed by more than an hour, on several instances, meant that the snag could not be rectified and AI had to arrange for another aircraft to operate the flight.

Sources say the airline found a shocking statistic — 145 flight delays of at least an hour in the first six months (181 days) of this year — while preparing a report on Dreamliner blues for aviation secretary Ashok Lavasa. If delays of less than an hour are counted, this number more than doubles, said a senior official.

Waiting for Dreamliner fixes, Air India stuck in a bad dream

Mumbai/New Delhi: Boeing's Dreamliner 787 planes, touted as a turnaround vehicle for Air India, are becoming a technical nightmare with numerous problems in the airframe and software, although some say the carrier's engineers and crew are partly to blame.

More than six airline executives that ETspoke to squarely blamed Boeing for being "slow" in rectifying the problems, including windshield cracks.

Boeing asks Air India not to fly Dreamliners near thunderstorms: G M Siddeshwara

New Delhi: US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has asked Air India to avoid flying its Dreamliner planes near thunderstorms as it enhanced the risk of icing on engines and the airline has changed its operating procedures accordingly.
"Boeing has issued an advisory to Air India to avoid flying the B-787 (Dreamliner) aircraft near high-level thunderstorms due to an increased risk of icing on the General Electric GEnx engines used on it," Minister of State for Civil Aviation G M Siddeshwara said reply to a question in Lok Sabha.
He said the problem was caused by a build-up of ice crystals behind the main fan of the engine, causing a brief loss of thrust.

Report sought on Dreamliner snags

New Delhi:  Repeated glitches in Dreamliner planes have prompted the civil aviation ministry to seek a report from Air India on the problems faced in the use of the aircraft.

“On a daily basis something or the other keeps happening to one of these planes. The airline is spending considerable time, energy and manpower just to take care of these issues. When an aircraft is grounded right before it takes off, it causes inconvenience to passengers, delays the flight and is not good for the reputation of the carrier. We have asked the airline to file a report detailing all the troubles it has faced with the plane,” said a senior ministry official.

The official said the ministry might take action and demand an explanation from manufacturer Boeing.

A match made in hell: Air India and Boeing Dreamliner

As of July 21, Air India had welcomed its 16th Boeing Dreamliner into the family. Yet already this year close to 150 Air India Dreamliner flights have been grounded, according to a news report. That’s almost nine groundings per Dreamliner this year.

The problems seem unending. Two Air India Dreamliners hit by snags in a day, Air India Dreamliner flight from Melbourne makes emergency landing due to 'glitches' and Air India Dreamliner windshield develops cracks. If nationalised airlines are an attempt to present the best of a country's engineering, efficiency and aesthetics, Air India does not show India in a good light.

The Boeing Dreamliner planes were introduced on Air India in September 2012 and the combination has been beset by problems since. The plane was met with a lot of fanfare as it is light weight and therefore consumes less fuel. Better fuel efficiency implies lower flying costs for the airline. At least Air India can claim it has never had a battery problem. During the three-month global grounding starting in January of last year, Air India flew three of its planes, albeit without passengers, without a hitch.

Ethiopia Airlines has named its new Dreamliner Taj Mahal

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - In what is being seen as a recognition of the heavy traffic generated on its routes to the Indian subcontinent, the flagship carrier of the East African nation of Ethiopia has named its newest Boeing 787 Dreamliner after India’s most famous monument.

The Ethiopian Airlines (ET) has named its eighth 787 Dreamliner after the Taj Mahal, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s monument of love to his wife. This is the first time that the airline has named an aircraft of its Dreamliner fleet after a historical or heritage site outside of Africa.

Another Dreamliner problem for Air India: Landing gear won't retract, flight grounded in Sydney

New Delhi: An Air India Dreamliner was grounded in Sydney on Thursday evening after the aircraft's landing gear developed a serious snag that made retracting the wheels after take off impossible. This is incidentally the third Dreamliner trouble AI has faced in a week and now two of its Boeing 787s are grounded abroad — Hong Kong and Sydney.
"The aircraft (VT-ANH, AI's first Dreamliner) took off from Delhi and landed safely in Sydney. After a short stop it was supposed to fly on to Melbourne and then return to Delhi. However, at Sydney airport the engineering detected a snag in the landing gear which ruled out retracting wheels in air. AI is sending engineers and replacement equipment on Friday but VT-ANH is grounded for at least two to three days," said a source.

After Air India fiasco, Boeing working on new windshield design for Dreamliners

New Delhi: US aircraft manufacturer Boeing is working on a new design for windshields of Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes following a series of incidents of cracks appearing in the aircraft owned by Air India, Rajya Sabha was told today.
"The ongoing investigation by Boeing indicates that moisture ingress has resulted in an increased rate of occurence. A new window design with improved features is in progress to reduce such incidents," Minister of State for Civil Aviation G M Siddeshwara said in reply to a question.
Air India has taken up the issue with Boeing which has informed it that "old windshields shall be replaced by new ones with improved design features," he said.

Air India puts up 5 more Dreamliners for leaseback

New Delhi: Air India will sell and lease back five of its new Dreamliners as part of cost-cutting measures and save substantial sums to pay off the bridge loans it has taken against these aircraft, official sources said.
The national carrier has issued a tender inviting bids for the sale and leaseback of five Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, which were delivered between August 26 last year and January 28 this year, the bid document said.
Leaseback, short for sale-and-leaseback, is a financial transaction where one sells an asset and leases it back for the long-term. Hence, one continues to use the asset but no longer owns it.