India’s national carrier Air India today took the
delivery of its 18th Dreamliner aircraft from US manufacturer Boeing with which
it plans to scale up its Birmingham operations.
The state-run airline had placed orders for 68
aircraft with Boeing in January, 2006, including for 27 Dreamliners and 41
B-777s and B-737-800s. It had taken the delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner in
September, 2012.
The new 787 aircraft will be used to begin daily
Birmingham operations, which presently run four times a week, the airline said.
Air India now has 18 fuel-efficient Dreamliners in
its fleet which cater to its global destinations across Europe, the UK, Far
East, South East Asia and Australia.
Besides, some of these planes have also been
deployed on domestic routes like Delhi to Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata.
The 787 also have a good seat factor of over 75 per
cent on some of the routes which resulted in some of its international
loss-making routes covering at least their operating costs.
AI plans to convert the last five Dreamliners into
787-9, which have a longer range and more seating capacity, the airline said,
adding that an internal committee has been asked to look into the proposal and
submit an evaluation report.
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