New Delhi: The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which is expected to be inducted in Air India's fleet shortly, is "fundamentally the right plane" for the airline's turnaround, a senior Boeing official said on Tuesday.
Three of these sophisticated aircraft, made out of composite carbon material, are ready at the Boeing facility in South Carolina, US, and a team of Air India officers, including the crew, is already there to take their delivery.
"Three Boeing 787 Dreamliners are ready for delivery at the Charleston. It is up to the airline when it takes their delivery. Boeing 787s are the fundamentally right plane for the turnaround of Air India," Dinesh A Keskar, Boeing's Senior Vice President, Sales, Asia-Pacific and India, said.
The Dreamliner will help the national carrier augment and expand its network, he said, adding that the plane has the range and the capacity to be deployed on many routes including the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Australia at "significantly lower operating costs".
Over the next four years, Boeing would deliver seven of these aircraft, he said. The company has so far delivered 19 aircraft to four airlines -- 13 to All Nippon Airlines, four to Japan Airlines and one each to Ethiopian Airways and Lan Airlines of Chile.
Keskar said that Air India's maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Nagpur will be completed by the year-end and become operational by the second quarter of next calender year.
The total cost of the MRO facility would be around $100 million, he said.
"Construction will be completed by December this year. Then equipment and machinery would be installed, including those for the 787s. And the MRO will become operational by the second quarter of next year after necessary clearances from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)," Keskar said.
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