Delivery of Boeing planes for AI in 2011

6 Nov 2010, 1753 hrs IST, AGENCIES
With reports of further delays in delivery of Boeing's next generation 787 aircraft, Air India on Saturday (November 6) said the deliveries of these planes for it are slated for June next year. “To the best of our knowledge, the delivery will begin from June 2011,” a spokesman for the national carrier said in New Delhi. Air India plans to buy 27 B-787 'Dreamliners' from Boeing which are to be delivered in phases. He said the delivery date was pushed back to June 2011 from April next year, as early as in August this year.

A report in the latest issue of the premier US-based journal Aviation Week and Space Technology said, "Air India now is believed to be scheduled to receive its first B-787 in September or October 2011 instead of April, a delay of around five months." The B-787s, made of composite materials to make it lighter and more fuel-efficient than other aircraft, are to be deployed by Air India on long-haul sectors like India-US and India-Australia for non-stop operations.

According to the report, the delay in deliveries would affect the first few customers like Korean Air and Japan Airlines, apart from Air India. Though Boeing has maintained that it would deliver the first B-787 to All Nippon Airways (ANA) toward the middle of the first quarter 2011, industry sources claimed that may no longer be possible, the report said. Official sources recently said that Boeing and Air India were working out the compensation package for the delay in deliveries of the Dreamliner.

While B-787-8 is designed to carry between 210250 passengers on routes non-stop up to 8,200 nautical miles or 15,200 km, its next version B-787-9 will fly 250290 passengers up to 8,500 nautical miles or 15,750 kms. Development of this plane has been plagued by delays because of "numerous production and supplier issues" and is already about three years behind schedule, the Aviation Week report added.