Air India : AI : AIC

NEW DELHI: Within days of deciding to sale and leaseback the first seven [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 787 Dreamliners it will receive till this June, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] has offered to lease five of its eight Boeing 777-200 planes for 8-10 years, officials said today.

The national carrier has floated a global tender to dry- lease these B 777-200 (Long Range) aircraft, four of which were manufactured in 2007, one in 2008 and three in 2009.

The move came days after the ailing national carrier decided to sale and leaseback seven of its Dreamliners and started looking for bridge financing worth USD 230 million.

These B 777s are on [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] financing and are being offered as sub-lease, the officials said.

The decision to lease out the Boeing 777s came in the backdrop of the planned induction of the B 787s, the first of which is expected to arrive later this month.

The second Dreamliner would be inducted in March, the third in April and two each in May and June.

The officials said the composite-material built Dreamliners would replace the B-777s on the long-haul, non- stop routes like those to the US and Canada.

The airline is also contemplating launching direct flights to Australia with these aircraft, they said.

Air India is also looking for interim bridge financing for accepting delivery of the first two B 787-8 planes and has invited offers from banks and financial institutions to arrange for USD 230 million or equivalent of cost of two planes.

CHEYENNE a écrit:Air India propose 5 de "ses" B 777 à la location. Sur 8 / 10 ans


Et veut revendre et relouer 7 B 787 à recevoir d'ici juin :

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

NEW DELHI: Within days of deciding to sale and leaseback the first seven [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 787 Dreamliners it will receive till this June, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] has offered to lease five of its eight Boeing 777-200 planes for 8-10 years, officials said today.

The national carrier has floated a global tender to dry- lease these B 777-200 (Long Range) aircraft, four of which were manufactured in 2007, one in 2008 and three in 2009.

The move came days after the ailing national carrier decided to sale and leaseback seven of its Dreamliners and started looking for bridge financing worth USD 230 million.

These B 777s are on [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] financing and are being offered as sub-lease, the officials said.

The decision to lease out the Boeing 777s came in the backdrop of the planned induction of the B 787s, the first of which is expected to arrive later this month.

The second Dreamliner would be inducted in March, the third in April and two each in May and June.

The officials said the composite-material built Dreamliners would replace the B-777s on the long-haul, non- stop routes like those to the US and Canada.

The airline is also contemplating launching direct flights to Australia with these aircraft, they said.

Air India is also looking for interim bridge financing for accepting delivery of the first two B 787-8 planes and has invited offers from banks and financial institutions to arrange for USD 230 million or equivalent of cost of two planes.

A legal challenge to the export credit offered by US Export-Import Bank is troubling the air finance sector at a time when it is already worried about Europe's debt crisis and shrinking access to commercial loans.

The former Air Transport Association of America, recently renamed Airlines for America (A4A), has asked a federal court in Washington DC to block the export credit guarantee given by Exim Bank to Air India on a $3.4 billion aircraft order from Boeing covering 787 and 777 aircraft.

A4A complains about alleged secrecy in Exim Bank's approval process for this guarantee and questions Air India's credit-worthiness. But its core complaint is that Exim Bank has ignored a statutory duty to consider the impact of its export credit on US industries and jobs.

A4A cites the example of Delta Air Lines, which operated New York-Mumbai non-stops until 2008. Between 2006 and 2009, Exim Bank guaranteed $3.3 billion in aircraft purchases by Air India. According to A4A, these allowed Air India to flood the USA-India market with extra capacity and crowd out competitors such as Delta Air Lines. As a result, Delta dropped the route and furloughed 64 pilots.

During the past decade, A4A contends that Exim Bank has provided $52 billion in guarantees to foreign carriers, allowing them to boost capacity on US routes 12% more than they would have without that favourable financing.

Like most export-import banks, the USA created its Exim Bank primarily to help domestic industries by facilitating the export of their goods and services.

Over the years, however, US lawmakers added some requirements to protect domestic companies that compete with the foreign buyers of those US goods and services. These are the sections of the law on which A4A case relies.

This is the first lawsuit to challenge Exim Bank's grant of export credit on these grounds, and lawyers disagree over how the statute applies. Exim Bank is not commenting beyond saying A4A's complaint is "without merit", and the federal judge handling this case refused an initial request to block the guarantee to Air India before trial.

Still, the statute is open to debate.

Among other things, it says that Exim Bank should not extend credit to any foreign producer of a "commodity" that might cause substantial injury to US producers "of the same, similar, or competing commodity". Many would read this as applying to agriculture or mining, but A4A claims airline seats are also a commodity, so the statute applies.

Predicting the argument that what is good for Boeing is good for the USA, A4A adds that Boeing outsources much of its work offshore, and US airlines hire five times as many employees as Boeing. Hence, so the argument goes, helping Boeing at the expense of US carriers has a net negative effect on US jobs.

Some of these arguments raise policy as well as legal issues. Perhaps for this reason, Exim Bank has retained former White House counsel to advise it on the case.

William Alderman, of Alderman & Company Capital, a broker specialising in the aerospace industry, sees the lawsuit in terms of the current US preoccupation with jobs and its national debt. "A4A is trying to manipulate this crisis to ensure that US tax dollars are used to help US airlines rather than Air India. But the real winner in this debate is Airbus," says Alderman.

Arguments similar to those in A4A's lawsuit have been raised before. In the 2010 negotiations over a new Aircraft Sector Understanding between nations in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), US and European airlines argued that OECD should ditch or rewrite the "home market rule". This rule denies the cheaper export credit to airlines in the home countries of either Boeing or Airbus. Then, as now, these airlines complained that export credit gave their foreign rivals an unfair advantage.

The OECD took other steps to level the competitive field, mainly by raising fees charged for export credit, but it left the home-market rule itself untouched. Dropping that rule might have made export credit available to domestic airlines on the same terms as for foreign airlines.

If A4A wins its current lawsuit, that could deprive many foreign airlines of US export credit. However, it would not make that credit available to US airlines, it would simply eliminate export aid from the competitive equation.

Or would it? As one insider observes: "If Boeing wasn't able to sell to Air India, then Airbus would swoop in. Air India would end up flying Airbus planes instead of Boeing planes, but the alleged damage to the US carriers would be exactly the same."

Air India has detailed the technical and financial specifications of its first seven Boeing 787s, including prices the Indian flag carrier will pay for its new twin-engine jetliner as part of its financial reorganisation that aims to conduct a sale leaseback on those early deliveries.

According to the information included in its request for proposal (RFP) for lessors published on the internet, the Indian carrier will incur a net cost of approximately $804 million, which includes the cost for the first seven 787s and two additional GEnx-1B engines.

The carrier breaks out its individual prices ranging from $109.6 million for its first 787 to $111.1 million for its seventh. Such prices, which include engines valued in the filing at around $16 million appear to have escalated over time to account for changes in commodity prices and inflation since the airline firmed its order for 27 787s in December 2005.

The deliveries, according to the filing, are 85% covered by US Ex-Im Bank financing and the balance by commercial financing sources.

The aircraft feature a two-class configuration for a total of 256 seats, including 18 Contour Aura business class seats and 238 Weber 5751 economy class seats in a 3-3-3 nine-abreast configuration and fitted with Thales i8000 Top Series in-flight entertainment.

According to the filing, VT-ANH, 787 Airplane 35, will be the airline's first delivered, which is expected to make its first flight in the middle of the month to support final certification requirements for the General Electric GEnx-1B-powered 787.

The second, Airplane 29, which has already completed change incorporation operations at Boeing's Global Services & Support facility in San Antonio, Texas will be delivered in March.

VT-ANA, Airplane 25, is expected in April, while VT-ANB and -ANC, Airplanes 26 and 38 will be delivered in May, followed by Airplane 30 and what is believed to be Airplane 32, registered VT-ANE and -ANG in June, respectively.

Also due in June to Air India is the first 787 built in Charleston, South Carolina, Airplane 46, although it is unclear if this will be a part of the first seven in the sale leaseback transaction. Registrations and serial number have been shuffled in the wake of the Boeing's changing production planning for 787 deliveries.

Further, Air India's early batch of deliveries also include aircraft that are in storage at Paine Field in Everett, Washington which require extensive re-work and post-certification modification, calling into question the feasibility of Boeing delivering all the aircraft as outlined in the current schedule.

Air India's 787 fleet will initially be powered by GEnx-1B67 engines rated at 70,000lbs of thrust before being de-rated to 67,000lbs after Boeing completes the certification of the reduced thrust setting, said the filing.

The public posting of a sale and leaseback request for proposal (RFP) by Air India has provided a glimpse of the carrier's transaction for its Boeing 787s. It confirms the low prices the backlog was built on and raises questions about the timing of its deliveries.

With the carrier paying $109.6-$111.1 million for each of its first seven 787s, including engines, the prices underscore the steep discounts Boeing offered customers on several hundred of its 787-8s.

The deliveries, according to the filing, are 85% covered by financing by Ex-Im Bank of the USA and the balance by commercial financing sources.

Excluding the General Electric GEnx-1B engines, listed as costing $16 million each, Air India is paying about the $76 million average price per airframe assigned to the first 330-500 aircraft.

Also, the final sale price includes contractual escalation and inflation, those familiar with Boeing's contract structure said, rising on increased commodity prices from the contract signed in December 2005 for 27 787s. Based on inflation of the US dollar alone, the 2005 sale price would be about $94 million.

The low 787 pricing when combined with the extended development and rising cost of the type means it will not be until 2015 at least that the cost of building each 787 falls below its purchase price.

This expectation is based on reaching 120 deliveries a year in 2014, building at a rate of 10 a month 23 months from now. Boeing should break even on its total 787 investment after delivering 1,100 aircraft.

For Air India, however, there remains the issue of obtaining its 787s. The RFP features specific delivery dates for the 787s and there are questions as to whether they will be ready in time.

The sale and leaseback offer posted on the airline's website states that VT-ANH, registered to Airplane 35, will be delivered at the end of January.

However, that target and the rest of its schedule appears unlikely to be realised with certification of the GEnx-1B powerplants yet to be completed.

Dossier à problèmes, ... encore ? !

Cash-strapped Air India is seeking nearly USD$1 billion from Boeing to compensate for delays in aircraft deliveries, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Deliveries on the national carrier's 2005 order for 50 long-range Boeing jets worth about USD$6 billion has been delayed by more than 3 years.

• La Cie. a besoin de liquidités.
  
• Air India ne veut pas d'avions de compensation, et surtout pas de B777-300ER, comme avions de compensation.
  

Air India, burdened with a USD$4 billion debt, is facing a severe cash crunch and is banking on government support to continue operations.

Earlier this week, Indian media quoted Aviation Minister Ajit Singh as saying that Air India would proceed with the purchase of Boeing planes despite its troubles, subject to government approval.

Air India plans to lease out excess aircraft to cut its huge debt after the introduction of Boeing 787 Dreamliners into its fleet, a source said in November.

India's airlines are struggling with surging oil prices, high sales taxes on jet fuel and fierce competition that has resulted in cutthroat pricing, leading to massive losses.

Jet fuel costs in India are among the highest in the world, largely as a result of high taxes. Earlier this week, a government panel approved a plan for carriers to directly import jet fuel to cut costs.

(Reuters)

Cash-strapped carrier Air India will refurbish up to 49 aircraft to reduce the number of business class seats in order to capture a larger number of economy passengers.

The state-owned carrier is proposing that the number of business class seats on its Airbus A320s and Airbus A321s to be cut from 20 to 12. These seats will instead be replaced by 12 to 18 economy seats, depending on approvals from manufacturer Airbus.

"This is mainly due to the shift to low-cost, budget travel by the majority and where business class seats have been restricted only to directors and above and government officials," said a spokesman when contacted.

To cut debt, the loss-making carrier will also be converting its short-term loans to long-term ones, reducing interest rates, issuing non-convertible debentures guaranteed by the government and refinancing some of its high-cost debts, he added.

Air India is also looking at importing jet fuel to lower its operating costs, and is in talks with interested parties to sort out the logistics of such imports.

"Once the economics is established, Air India will then apply for the necessary regulatory approvals for the import of air turbine fuel," said the spokesman.

Just last week, the Indian government had given approval for domestic carriers to directly import jet fuel in a move aimed at lowering the airlines' operating costs.

Jet fuel prices in India are up to 40% higher than those in the international market because of high base price and even higher taxes, both at the national and state level.

• Est-ce que les ventes de B787 à Air India peuvent vraiment être jugées comment étant vraiment sur une base commerciale / "at arm's length" ? Vraiment ? Voyez ou j'en voudrais en venir.... !
  
• Et on echerche à nous dire que l'affaire du Rafale / Eurofighter-Typhoon n'est pas une question d'argent, indépendamment des besoins réels de l'IAF ?
  

AI proposes for $1 Billion, Boeing disposes $500 million to AI! - Live From A Lounge

The Air India – Boeing duel is the stuff of folklore now. Air India seems to clearly be in the mood to milk the cow called Boeing Airplanes as much as it can, to add to its bleeding bottomline. Air India signed on to buy 27 787′s from Boeing, and these were expected to be brought on board starting 2009. The 787 program suffered multiple delays and the first few 787′s were certified and given away to ANA All Nippon Airways only last year towards the end of the year. Air India was next in line, and had a story that the airline could not function properly without the new planes and all its plans went awry. “Yeah, right!,” is all I have to say to that, taking all their infighting and incompetence into account.

However, now that the planes are finally rolling out, Air India expects to receive its first batch sometime in May. Infact one of the planes, which will be registered in India as VT-ANH is sitting in Hyderabad this week as a part of the Boeing entourage to Indian Aviation 2012 event this week.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

If all goes as per plan, Air India may well become the second airline to induct the 787s into its fleet. However, to compensate for the 3 year delay, AI asked for a nice round $1 Billion dollars in compensation from Boeing. Clearly, that was posturing to ek out the maximum they could out of the situation where the airframe manufacturer had not met its timelines. And it did seem to succeed in that. [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], as per Boeing and Government of India sources.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]put out the price of their airframes at ~$110 Million per aircraft for the first 7 airframes, including the engines, which means a back of the envelope calculation should put each airframe cost at $76 million. The compensation offered works out to be $18.5 million per airframe. This is in addition to the profits that Air India expects to make ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]?) on the sale and leaseback of the planes. The plane lists at $193 million today, and planes are sold at discounts to list prices anyways. And Air India is going to get it for less than $50 million [$76 million price - $18.5 million compensation - $10 million profit].

Now only, only and only, if they were to do the right route planning and do all the right things that the new toys are going to help them get a lot of visibility in the market, and for once, I’d be happy to fly them if they got it right. Please Air India, don’t screw up this one! And don’t screw up on Star Alliance membership either.

Boeing: Indian Airlines Should Raise Air Fares

Boeing is pushing India to take delivery of aircraft on order, while at the same time acknowledging there is too much capacity in India’s commercial aviation market.

“The problem with the growth in India is it’s not profitable growth,” says Dinesh Keskar, Boeing senior VP of sales for Asia Pacific and India. No industry can sustain the losses the Indian airline industry has been posting, he adds. “You cannot sell air fares below cost. It has to end at some point,” says Keskar, who was speaking to reporters during a press briefing yesterday at the India Aviation Exhibition in Hyderabad.

Keskar attributes the losses to too much capacity as well as rising costs, particularly higher fuel prices. Money-losing airlines in turn “cannot raise funds in the market,” he adds.

Because airlines have little control over the cost side of the equation, the way to be profitable is to increase revenue by raising air fares, says Keskar. “Air fares need to increase by 15%. If the industry doesn’t do this, then it will continue to have massive losses.”

He also says airlines need to explore new markets. “Airlines need to have the right route structure. If everyone flies Mumbai-New Delhi and no secondary routes, then no one is going to make money. It’s about having the right capacity and demand match.”

Even though over-capacity has caused problems for India’s airline industry, Boeing is still pushing hard for carriers to honor their commitments and take delivery of aircraft on order.

Boeing had an Air India Boeing 787-8 on static display at the Hyderabad aviation exhibition, not to show it off to the public, but to send a clear message to Air India and the Indian government that its 787s are ready for delivery, and ready now. Two 787s have already been completed for Air India, says Keskar

Boeing was hoping to deliver Air India’s first 787 in December, but had to delay it because Air India had yet to train its pilots for the 787, says Keskar, adding that he is confident the first 787 will be delivered to Air India in the second quarter. Keskar says pilot training takes only five days if the pilots are switching over from Boeing 777s.

India’s government has been discussing how it will finance the 27 787s Air India has on order. The latest reports suggest the government will allow Air India to do sale/leasebacks.

Keskar says Air India traditionally has made use of export credit agency (ECA) financing. “This is something still available to them today,” he says. “They can also do sale/leasebacks. They [the government] will find a way out of it. We are continuing to build these aircraft for Air India,” he adds.

Air India needs these 256-seat aircraft because it has never found a replacement for its Airbus A310 widebodies that were phased out, says Keskar. Today there is a gap in Air India’s fleet between its 180-seat narrowbodies and 350-seat widebodies, he says.

Besides 787s, Air India also has three Boeing 777s on order, although none of them are due for delivery so soon, says Keskar.

He also says India’s Jet Airways has 10 787s on order, but the first is not due to be delivered until 2014. It also has about 43 737s on order, and SpiceJet has 30 737s on order, he adds.

Keskar, during the briefing, took a not so subtle swipe at Airbus by saying Boeing sold aircraft to airlines in India only after “making sure the airlines had a business plan and a plan that made sense to us.”

Zitek a écrit:J'ai lu cet intérêt d'Air Indiaa pour un sublease de 5 B777-200LR ( une société de portage....soit : la cession éventuelle des 777-200LR évoqués)

Mais que ferait Air Canada d'un seul -200LR restant ? Ça n'a aucun sens, non ?

• avoir un acquéreur potentiel en vue (il n'y en a surement pas des masses) ;
  
• le vouloir comme sources de pièces détachées !
  

Air India will not take delivery of any Boeing 787 aircraft until a compensation amount for the delays of those aircraft is finalised.

The state-owned carrier's board made the decision on Monday after a detailed discussion and has submitted its plan to the country's civil aviation ministry for approval, says an Air India spokesman.

He declined to comment on the compensation amount the carrier is looking at, citing confidentiality on the matter.

"How long the delay will be depends on when the government makes a decision," he adds.

The cash-strapped carrier was due to take delivery of its first 787 in early June.

Air India has 27 787s on order and was initially scheduled to receive the first aircraft in September 2008, although that was pushed back because of delays on the 787 programme.

Media reports in India estimate that the compensation amount will range between $145 million and $800 million. The country's civil aviation minister Ajit Singh has also said that Air India will not take delivery of the aircraft until the airline and the manufacturer decide on the compensation package, the reports add.

Meanwhile, the carrier has fired 101 pilots who have gone on strike because of an ongoing labour dispute. These pilots, previously with Indian Airlines before it merged with Air India in 2007, were protesting the carrier's decision not to train them for the 787 aircraft.

The carrier will be cutting its international flights from 45 to 38 a day in June because of disruptions from the strike. Services to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Japan will be cancelled, adds the spokesman.

Singh has since reiterated that the demands of the pilots will be considered "only if they report back to duty unconditionally".

An Indian ministerial panel has approved an undisclosed compensation package from Boeing for delayed delivery of 787 Dreamliner aircraft for state-run Air India, the country's aviation minister Ajit Singh said on Wednesday.

India's cabinet, Singh added, must now clear the package.

Deliveries of the 787s are caught up in a dispute between the US plane maker and India over compensation to the carrier, after production of the planes was delayed by four years.(Reuters)

1. ce "package" soit agréé par le "Cabinet" ;
   
2. la 'décision d'agréer' soit ratifiée, cette ratification étant 'concrétisée' par la Signature du Premier Ministre indien lui-même !
   

Sources have confirmed to me that Boeing did not deliver a 787 to Air India today and further revealed that the company was not expecting to make a delivery from the Boeing Charleston facility today.

There is still no confirmed date as to when Air India will allow a delivery to take place. Boeing is ready to deliver the three 787s parked at Charleston and is awaiting word from Air India.

It was close, it seems, as of last Wednesday when ZA236 took a test flight but then rumors started to come out that the Indian Ministry of Finance as not signed off on the transfer of the final payment to Boeing.

Again this further erodes any confidence that these airplanes will be delivered anytime soon.

This entire episode is further proof of the incompetence and mismanagement at Air India and the Government of India itself.

In the meantime there are 4 787s (3 with Air India livery) that are parked at Charleston. The fourth aircraft is widely believed to be ZA238 which experienced the engine issue last month and now has a replacement engine. I anticipate that this airplane can make its first flight in about two weeks.