Air India : AI : AIC

Air Canada, Garuda, Thai and Air Austral could sublease Air India’s 777s
Air Canada, Thai Airways International, Garuda Indonesia and Reunion Island-based Austral have expressed interest in subleasing [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]-200LRs and 777-300ERs from Air India.
Earlier this year Air India announced plans to lease out a large portion of its new 777 fleet as part of a cost cutting programme. Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav says the carrier has so far received responses from Air Canada, Thai, Garuda and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].
"There are four responses. We are evaluating them," Jadhav told ATI during a Star Alliance event in Sao Paulo.
Air India is in the process of joining Star while Air Canada and Thai are already in the alliance.
Air India initially indicated it was seeking to lease out nine 777s. But Jadhav says the carrier is now negotiating subleases on six aircraft - a mix of 777-200LRs and 777-300ERs.
"We got six to lease out," he says. "The evaluation is going on right now."
Jadhav declined to say when a deal would be concluded. He says the carrier is now looking at when it can remove the aircraft from its operation and when the four interested carriers are able to take the aircraft.
"We are looking at the timelines," Jadhav says. "The timelines have to match up."
According to Flightglobal's ACAS database, Air India currently operates eight 777-200LRs and 10 777-300ERs. All 17 of these aircraft are less than three years old.

NEW DELHI: National carrier Air India is going to adopt a tough line with US aircraft major Boeing over long delay in its B-787 Dreamliner delivery that has upset Maharaja's survival-cum-growth plans. AI had ordered 27 Dreamliners and Boeing was supposed to start the delivery from September 2008. Now, it says that first of those aircraft will come only in late Q1 or early Q2 of 2011.

Highly placed sources said a miffed AI is going to issue a notice to Boeing shortly, asking for a firm delivery schedule of its 27 ordered 787s and further delay would invite daily penalty. Clearly, AI feels unless Boeing gives a realistic schedule about the delivery, AI's strategic plans won't work.

AI will also seek a refund of $240 million paid three years ago as pre-delivery payment (PDP) for the B-787s. "We are telling Boeing that there will be no more PDPs for 787s and payment will begin only after actual delivery now," said sources. In fact, AI is also likely to warn Boeing that it can cancel the 787 order if these conditions are not met.

This action will be in addition to the $710 million damage already claimed by AI for the delay in 787. "Under the agreement clause with Boeing, we were entitled to a maximum of $145 million as consolidated damages. But that clause is redundant as far as we are concerned. The delay and uncertainty surrounding the 787 has completely spoilt our capital acquisition programme. We are forced to have sub-optimal utilisation on routes where we had planned to use the 787, by using other aircraft," said sources.

Earlier this week, Boeing India head Dinesh Keskar had said that airlines were entitled to get compensation for the 787 delay. AI's first Boeing 787 is in assembly. "We hope to deliver it in late first or early second quarter 2011," he said, adding that he had shown AI top brass the Dreamliner at the recent Farnborough air show in UK.
Post slowdown, with the growth in air traffic, airlines are looking to expand their fleet. The AI-Indian Airlines combine, National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), is no exception.

The management has projected a requirement to take 10 Airbus A-320s on lease and also replace the two old A-330s with newer leased planes. A committee headed by a senior board member, who also happens to represent the government of India, will examine this projected requirement.

Mumbai: Faced with rising maintenance costs and a delay in delivery of aircraft (B787), state-run Air India is looking to lease out six of its large Boeing 777 aircraft as well as hire at least 10 midsize Airbus A330 planes. A final decision will be taken in a month after a government committee finishes studying the proposal.

Chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav confirmed there is a proposal from the airline’s engineering department asking for midsize aircraft, given delays in the delivery of Boeing 787s, which were supposed to replace old Airbus A310 aircraft that are being phased out.

“This proposal is referred to a committee headed by additional secretary and financial adviser in the ministry of civil aviation… It is expected to give its report in a month’s time,” Jadhav said.
“At present, the maintenance cost of old A330s is high. Since we cannot buy the planes, we could look at short-term leases for new planes that will lower the maintenance cost as well as retain the market (value),” said Jadhav, adding that Air India has asked US aircraft maker Boeing Co. for compensation for the delays, without disclosing details.

A civil aviation ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also confirmed the development, adding that “the same committee that was set up in 2004 for fleet acquisitions will look into the proposals”. Both Jadhav and the ministry official declined to divulge details of the new orders.

Dinesh A. Keskar, president of Boeing India and vice-president of Boeing International, declined to comment on Air India’s leasing plans, or on the compensation demands.

The airline’s move stems largely from a delay in delivery of Boeing 787, leading to difficulties in Air India retaining its current market in the large carrier space. Also, the decision to replace old aircraft such as A310s and (Sevrien : "older") A330s is to lower maintenance costs.

A Boeing 777 (-300ER) can seat up to 365 people, while the Dreamliners have a capacity of 250 passengers. The A330 can seat up to 290 people.

Air India was scheduled to get its first of 27 Boeing 787s, popularly known as Dreamliners, in September 2008, but delivery has been pushed back to the second quarter of calendar year 2011.
The government official quoted earlier said the carrier will only take a final decision on the leasing moves after it works out the cost, availability, internal rate of return and other operating terms of an alternative aircraft in the event that the Dreamliner is delayed further, or even to serve the current markets.

An Air India executive said on condition of anonymity that there was no harm in preparing a Plan B since the airline has already lost almost two years.

Some analysts say leasing more planes will add to Air India’s current debt of Rs18,000 crore. In 2007, the flag carrier had embarked on an ambitious fleet acquisition, buying 111 aircraft—43 from Airbus SAS and 68 from Boeing—worth $11 billion (Rs50,710 crore today).
Others, however, say that the carrier needs midsize wide-body aircraft to fly to destinations such as Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong, pointing out that the Boeing 777s are too large for those routes and would be under-utilized on seat occupancy, while adding to jet fuel costs.

Given that the Dreamliners are delayed and A310s are getting older, the carrier needs a better aircraft in the interim period, said V. Thulasidas, former chairman and managing director of Air India.
“Dreamliners are ideal to replace A310s since it is midsize in the category of wide-body planes. If Air India uses Boeing 777s instead of A310s, the performance will be suboptimal,” said Thulasidas, now a consultant to various aviation projects of the Kerala government, adding that even A330s would be a good interim arrangement until delivery of the Dreamliners starts.
pr.sanjai

Boeing insiders indicated the company has decided to push back the first flight of the sixth and final 787 flight test aircraft to Sept. 12, while on another front the manufacturer is facing a $1 billion claim from Air India related to 27 delayed Dreamliners the carrier has on order.

The latest challenges to hit the 787 program come as Boeing continues to target the 2010 fourth quarter for first delivery to ANA even as it warns that first deliveries could slip into 2011 ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]). While final assembly has started on the 26th 787 designated for Air India, the airline reportedly has submitted a $1 billion claim against Boeing for compensation for delivery delays. According to India Today, it has the backing of the Indian government in seeking compensation from Boeing, although the US government is pressuring it to soften its line.

Initial 787 deliveries to Air India were due to start in 2008 but the first aircraft is now scheduled to be delivered in March 2011. The airline is planning to use 787s to replace aging aircraft including A310s and 747-400s.
Boeing has acknowledged that the margin on the 787 flight test program has thinned considerably. Its plan to put the sixth flight test aircraft in the air by the end of July did not come to fruition. According to company insiders, ZA006's first flight is now targeted for Sept. 12.

The first five flight test aircraft have completed 463 flights spanning 1,446 hr. The high-time aircraft is ZA001 with 159 flights and 466.7 hr.

Air India is considering acquisition of either the Airbus A-340-500 or the new Boeing 747-8 aircraft — either purchase or lease — for official visits overseas by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other VVIPs since it is phasing out the ageing Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets currently used for this purpose.

Top aviation sources told this newspaper that one of these two different types of aircraft is likely to be selected by the government and Air India as the new “Air India One”. About five such aircraft could be acquired, with two being earmarked for VVIP use. The government earlier acquired three Boeing business jets (operated by the IAF) VVIP travel within India and its immediate neighbourhhod.

While the unified Air India is still in the process of acquiring a total of 111 aircraft (from both Boeing and Airbus), for which contracts were signed with the two aviation giants a few years back, none of these aircraft was considered suitable to replace the giant Boeing 747-400s. These 111 aircraft include modern ones such as the Boeing 777 and 787 “Dreamliner”, but it was felt these were not large enough to replace the Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets as the new Air India One.

“It was felt that only either the A-340-500 or the new Boeing 747-8 were wide-bodied and large enough to carry the Prime Minister and his party in place of the current jumbo jets,” sources said.

The Airbus A-340-500, manufactured by French aviation giant Airbus Industrie,....

... is currently being used by some airlines to fly nonstop on the 18-hour Singapore-New York route, which is considered the longest duration flight globally.
The Boeing 747-8, on the other hand, is also a large aircraft which can seat over 450 people in three configurations. It is still undergoing flight trials and is the latest and most technologically advanced of the Boeing 747 series of aircraft.

Air India to dry-lease 4 Airbus A-330 aircraft

MUMBAI: Air India is planning to dry-lease four Airbus A-330 aircraft to service some of its medium-haul international routes, airline sources said today.

"The purpose of taking A-330 aircraft is to deploy them on medium-haul routes or on sectors which have 7-8 hours of flying, like Hong Kong," the sources said, adding "though we are leasing only four aircraft now, our actual requirement is that of ten of these planes."

Currently, the national carrier has two of these wide-body planes in its fleet which are operating on the Jeddah and Shanghai sectors.

The leasing period of the A-330s would be one-and-a-half year to two years, the sources said. Under the dry-lease arrangement, the lessor provides an aircraft without crew, insurance, ground staff, supporting equipment and maintenance, all of which has to be taken care of by the lessee.

The routes on which these A-330 aircraft would be deployed are being finalised, the sources said, adding that the delivery of these leased planes would have to be made between October 2010 and September 2011.

The decision to lease these Airbus planes came in the wake of delays in the delivery of Boeing 787 Dreamliners by the US manufacturer for which Air India has sought compensation.

Air India had placed orders for the delivery of 27 Dreamliner aircraft even when the project was on drawing board in 2006. It was to receive the first aircraft in 2009, which would now be delivered by 2013.

Following the delay in the delivery of B-787s, Air India has planned to take on lease ten A-330s, besides several A-320s and turboprop ATR planes to meet its requirements.

Air India, Jet Airways to Lease 35 Airbus Planes

Air India and Jet Airways India Ltd. have agreed to lease 35 planes of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV's Airbus from leasing companies.
Flag carrier Air India has decided to lease 10 A330 planes and 15 A320s, Airbus said in a statement late Monday. Jet Airways, India's biggest carrier by market share, will lease 10 A330s.
Airbus said the 25 planes that Air India plans to take on lease have a list acquisition price of $3.1 billion, while the 10 planes chosen by Jet Airways have a list acquisition price of $1.9 billion.
A spokesman for Airbus said the deals are, however, likely to be done directly with the leasing companies and are unlikely to give new business to Airbus.
"The carriers will select an engine supplier and a leasing company in the near future," Airbus said.
Indian carriers have started to take new planes on lease or order new aircraft as demand for air travel rebounds from the global economic slowdown of 2008 and early 2009. Budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd. last month ordered 30 turboprop aircraft from Canada's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Inc. for $900 million, adding to a $2.7 billion order for 30 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Co.'s 737-800 planes placed in July. Another budget airline IndiGo has received government approval to buy 150 Airbus planes.
Ragini Chopra, a spokeswoman for Mumbai-based Jet, said the airline is planning to take the 10 A330s on lease to expand its international operations.
"We are in talks with various leasing companies for the aircraft," she said, but declined to elaborate.
The first two A330s will be leased between January and June 2011, while the rest will be leased in 2012 for use on long-haul routes, said another Jet Airways executive, who declined to be named.
"We are finalising our international expansion plans," the executive said. "We think demand is rising and this is the right time to deploy additional capacity."
Jet has already leased four ATR turboprop planes from the aircraft leasing arm of U.K.-based [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] PLC. Two more ATRs will join the fleet next month.

AI to take four Boeing planes on wet lease

MUMBAI: State-run Air India plans to lease four Boeing aircraft along with its pilots and cabin crew for its no-frill carrier AI Express and take 10 Airbus planes on dry-lease to expand its own network, sources said.

Though the airline had floated tenders in November to dry-lease four Boeing 737-800 for its wholly-owned subsidiary Air India Express for up to five years, an office order was issued last month saying "it has been decided to wet lease four aircraft for Air India Express."

Wet lease is an arrangement in which the lessor provides an aircraft along with the cockpit and cabin crew and pays for its maintenance and insurance. The company which wet leases the plane pays by the hours it is operated. In dry lease, only the aircraft is leased out.

The B-737s were being wet leased "in order to augment capacity to meet the surging demand and also the demands from MPs of Punjab and Kerala to restore the original (flight) schedule," the order signed by AI CMD Arvind Jadhav said.

Air India Express operates mainly across the Gulf and South-east Asia, and currently has a 21-aircraft fleet in which 17 are owned and four are on lease.

The wet-lease move has baffled some officials who said that wet leasing was always costlier than dry lease and there was no shortage of pilots in Air India Express.

Requesting anonymity, they said Air India had to cough up 130 crore in the 1990s to terminate a short-term lease agreement for two Airbus A310-300s with Antigua-based aircraft leasing company Caribjet after an arbitration. It also had to spend 10 crore on the litigation.

In a related development, the national carrier floated tenders to dry lease 10 A-330s for five years with the option of extending the lease period by another two years. The deliveries of these aircraft would be preferred from the second quarter of this year, the tender document said.

The Airbus planes should be manufactured in 2009 or later but the airline would consider four year old planes if it did not get proper response for the newer ones, it said.

The document also announced Air India's intention to sub-lease two A330-200 aircraft, currently in its fleet, till 2014.

Air India's aircraft acquisition and leasing policies have come under severe criticism from the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture and the Committee on Public Undertakings , which have recommended that these policies be relooked in the interest of the national airline

Jeannot a écrit:Air India va louer 10 A330s et 15 A320s alors que Jet Airways va louer 10 A330s

Air India, Jet Airways to Lease 35 Airbus Planes

Air India and Jet Airways India Ltd. have agreed to lease 35 planes of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV's Airbus from leasing companies.
Flag carrier Air India has decided to lease 10 A330 planes and 15 A320s, Airbus said in a statement late Monday. Jet Airways, India's biggest carrier by market share, will lease 10 A330s.
Airbus said the 25 planes that Air India plans to take on lease have a list acquisition price of $3.1 billion, while the 10 planes chosen by Jet Airways have a list acquisition price of $1.9 billion.
A spokesman for Airbus said the deals are, however, likely to be done directly with the leasing companies and are unlikely to give new business to Airbus.

"The carriers will select an engine supplier and a leasing company in the near future," Airbus said.

Indian carriers have started to take new planes on lease or order new aircraft as demand for air travel rebounds from the global economic slowdown of 2008 and early 2009. Budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd. last month ordered 30 turboprop aircraft from Canada's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Inc. for $900 million, adding to a $2.7 billion order for 30 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Co.'s 737-800 planes placed in July.

Another budget airline IndiGo has received government approval to buy 150 Airbus planes.

Ragini Chopra, a spokeswoman for Mumbai-based Jet, said the airline is planning to take the 10 A330s on lease to expand its international operations.
"We are in talks with various leasing companies for the aircraft," she said, but declined to elaborate.
The first two A330s will be leased between January and June 2011, while the rest will be leased in 2012 for use on long-haul routes, said another Jet Airways executive, who declined to be named. We are finalising our international expansion plans," the executive said. "We think demand is rising and this is the right time to deploy additional capacity."

Jet has already leased four ATR turboprop planes from the aircraft leasing arm of U.K.-based [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] PLC. Two more ATRs will join the fleet next month.

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

Jeannot a écrit:Air India pourrait prendre plusieurs appareils en wet lease (4 737s) et Dry lease (10 Airbus).

AI to take four Boeing planes on wet lease

MUMBAI: State-run Air India plans to lease four Boeing aircraft along with its pilots and cabin crew for its no-frill carrier AI Express and take 10 Airbus planes on dry-lease to expand its own network, sources said.

Though the airline had floated tenders in November to dry-lease four Boeing 737-800 for its wholly-owned subsidiary Air India Express for up to five years, an office order was issued last month saying "it has been decided to wet lease four aircraft for Air India Express."

Wet lease is an arrangement in which the lessor provides an aircraft along with the cockpit and cabin crew and pays for its maintenance and insurance. The company which wet leases the plane pays by the hours it is operated. In dry lease, only the aircraft is leased out.

The B-737s were being wet leased "in order to augment capacity to meet the surging demand and also the demands from MPs of Punjab and Kerala to restore the original (flight) schedule," the order signed by AI CMD Arvind Jadhav said.

Air India Express operates mainly across the Gulf and South-east Asia, and currently has a 21-aircraft fleet in which 17 are owned and four are on lease.

The wet-lease move has baffled some officials who said that wet leasing was always costlier than dry lease and there was no shortage of pilots in Air India Express.

Requesting anonymity, they said Air India had to cough up 130 crore in the 1990s to terminate a short-term lease agreement for two Airbus A310-300s with Antigua-based aircraft leasing company Caribjet after an arbitration. It also had to spend 10 crore on the litigation.

In a related development, the national carrier floated tenders to dry lease 10 A-330s for five years with the option of extending the lease period by another two years. The deliveries of these aircraft would be preferred from the second quarter of this year, the tender document said.

The Airbus planes should be manufactured in 2009 or later but the airline would consider four year old planes if it did not get proper response for the newer ones, it said.

The document also announced Air India's intention to sub-lease two A330-200 aircraft, currently in its fleet, till 2014.

Air India's aircraft acquisition and leasing policies have come under severe criticism from the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture and the Committee on Public Undertakings , which have recommended that these policies be relooked in the interest of the national airline

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

BOMBAY, 17 janvier (Reuters) - Le groupe public indien Air India prévoit de louer 40 nouveaux avions au canadien Bombardier et à Airbus dans son effort pour tirer profit du développement de la classe moyenne indienne.

La compagnie aérienne envisage de demander aux deux constructeurs de lui soumettre des propositions financières pour des commandes allant jusqu'à 20 appareils chacun.

Cette annonce, qui figure sur le site internet d'Air India, intervient quelques jours après la commande de 15,6 milliards de dollars (11,9 milliards d'euros) passée par son concurrent IndiGo à Airbus.

Il s'agit de la plus grosse commande de l'histoire de l'aviation commerciale.

La compagnie nationale, qui exploite 135 appareils dont 27 en location, a demandé un devis pour la location de dix Airbus A330 et dix A320, indique le document d'appel d'offres.

Air India cherche à louer entre 16 et 20 avions CRJ-700 à Bombardier pour cinq ans avec une option pour prolonger la location de deux ans.

Le transporteur, qui perd de l'argent et connaît des difficultés dues à sa dette élevée, a obtenu en décembre le feu vert du gouvernement indien pour une injection de capital de 12 milliards de roupies (198 millions d'euros).

Air India a également cherché à obtenir 20 milliards de roupies supplémentaires de la part du gouvernement afin de réduire sa dette et de se développer.

Les compagnies aériennes indiennes cherchent à accroître leur capacité en augmentant leur flotte pour faire face à la demande croissante pour le transport aérien.

Le trafic passagers aérien en Inde a progressé de 19% en novembre de l'année dernière.

En novembre, SpiceJet a accepté d'acheter 30 avions Nextgen Turboprop à Bombardier pour 915 millions d'euros.

Jet Airways, le numéro un indien,
a quant à lui commandé 49 appareils dont les livraisons devraient
commencer en avril 2012. (Aniruddha Basu, Florent Le Quintrec pour le service français, édité par Danielle Rouquié)

The board of India's state-run national carrier Air India on Wednesday approved a proposal for the purchase of 21 Airbus A320 aircraft for an estimated $1.2 billion, a report said.


2011 AFP

Hooket a écrit:Selon Aerocontact ( bonjour ! )

Air India cherche à louer 10 Airbus A 330 et 10 A 320 ( document d'appel d'offre )

Combien de B 777 d'Air India ont trouvé preneurs en sub lease ! ?

Le premier "bid" date de 2009, pour trois B-777-200, via NACIL...oh, oh

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

BOMBAY, 17 janvier (Reuters) - Le groupe public indien Air India prévoit de louer 40 nouveaux avions au canadien Bombardier et à Airbus dans son effort pour tirer profit du développement de la classe moyenne indienne.

La compagnie aérienne envisage de demander aux deux constructeurs de lui soumettre des propositions financières pour des commandes allant jusqu'à 20 appareils chacun.

Cette annonce, qui figure sur le site internet d'Air India, intervient quelques jours après la commande de 15,6 milliards de dollars (11,9 milliards d'euros) passée par son concurrent IndiGo à Airbus.

Il s'agit de la plus grosse commande de l'histoire de l'aviation commerciale.

La compagnie nationale, qui exploite 135 appareils dont 27 en location, a demandé un devis pour la location de dix Airbus A330 et dix A320, indique le document d'appel d'offres.

Air India cherche à louer entre 16 et 20 avions CRJ-700 à Bombardier pour cinq ans avec une option pour prolonger la location de deux ans.

Le transporteur, qui perd de l'argent et connaît des difficultés dues à sa dette élevée, a obtenu en décembre le feu vert du gouvernement indien pour une injection de capital de 12 milliards de roupies (198 millions d'euros).

Air India a également cherché à obtenir 20 milliards de roupies supplémentaires de la part du gouvernement afin de réduire sa dette et de se développer.

Les compagnies aériennes indiennes cherchent à accroître leur capacité en augmentant leur flotte pour faire face à la demande croissante pour le transport aérien.

Le trafic passagers aérien en Inde a progressé de 19% en novembre de l'année dernière.

En novembre, SpiceJet a accepté d'acheter 30 avions Nextgen Turboprop à Bombardier pour 915 millions d'euros.

Jet Airways, le numéro un indien,
a quant à lui commandé 49 appareils dont les livraisons devraient
commencer en avril 2012. (Aniruddha Basu, Florent Le Quintrec pour le service français, édité par Danielle Rouquié)

Je pense, et cela n'engage que moi, que le MoU d'IndiGo : Air India s'en moque. Les ambitions de Kingfisher, beaucoup moins.

Hooket a écrit:Les B-777-200 d'Air India sont des modèles -237 LR à moteurs GE 90 110B1L

Hooket a écrit:Que dire de la réponse de GE à TAAG ?

Hooket a écrit:Mon chapeau que les prochains avions - Airbus A 330 - loués n'auront pas de GE sous les ailes !

Air India is slated to take its first [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in October, the first of 27 the carrier has on order, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and airline sources tell ATI and Flightglobal.

The first aircraft, likely Airplane 25, will be registered VT-ANA, and powered with twin General Electric [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]-1B engines.
According to Boeing's latest Z23 schedule planning, the Indian carrier will be among the four asian airlines to receive 20 787s in 2011.

All Nippon Airways is slated to receive its first in July, with Japan Airlines to follow in October, followed by China Southern in late in 2011.
Air India said at last month's Aero India in Bangalore it anticipated receiving its first 787 in the fourth quarter, in line with the October target, more than three years after its first was expected in September 2008.

Air India Pilots Begin Indefinite Strike

Domestic flights of state-run Air India are likely to be disrupted beginning April 27 as a group of pilots began an indefinite strike on April 26 demanding pay parity and better working conditions.
The strike was called by the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), which comprises about 800 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines. According to Rishab Kapoor, the general secretary of ICPA, the pilots were to go on strike at midnight local time on April 26.
The ICPA decided to strike following a breakdown of talks involving the ICPA, the management of Air India and the chief labor commissioner.
The talks were ongoing for several weeks, but ended in deadlock. The main demand of pilots is pay parity with pilots of Air India, with which Indian Airlines was merged in 2009. The merged entity has about 1,200 pilots.
An airline source said Air India has made contingency plans to deal with the strike, but declined to divulge the details.
It is understood that the airline will seek the services of pilots belonging to the management cadre to ensure there is no large-scale disruption of flights.
The cash-strapped airline is 400 billion rupees ($9.07 billion) in debt, of which 180 billion rupees are working capital loans from a consortium of banks, and the balance of 220 billion rupees was used to fund the purchase of new aircraft.
So far, the government has injected 12 billion rupees and 8 billion rupees in two tranches to increase the carrier’s equity base to 21.45 billion rupees.

Talks Continue Over Air India Strike

fresh round of talks Thursday between striking Air India pilots and authorities failed to resolve the impasse and end a nine-day strike.
“The talks remain inconclusive, and we hope to continue talks with the striking pilots on Friday,” says a Civil Aviation Ministry official, who was confident that the deadlock would end soon.
Union leaders also expressed hope that the issues would be resolved in a day or two.
“We met for four-and-a-half hours today. Government is making sincere efforts to resolve the issue and has taken some serious steps forward. We are hopeful that the matter will be resolved in a day or two,” says Rishabh Kapur, general secretary of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA).
Kapur, however, declined to elaborate on the issues discussed during the meeting.
“We will meet again tomorrow ... The talks are going on in a positive direction.”
The pilots went on strike at midnight April 26 demanding equal pay for Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots in the merged entity.
Meanwhile, fresh trouble is brewing for the crippled Air India management as the All India Cabin Crew Association (AICCA) demanded immediate implementation of the merger agreements, including better pay and fixed flying hours.

Air India negotiating for 'just compensation' for Boeing-787 delays

National carrier Air India Monday said that it was in active negotiations with US aerospace major Boeing for securing "just compensation" for the delay in deliveries of 27 new-age B-787 Dreamliner aircraft, some of which should have joined the fleet by now.

"We are in active negotiation with them (Boeing) for getting just compensation for the delay in deliveries," a senior Air India official told IANS from Mumbai.

Deliveries were to have begun in the October-December quarter of 2010 but due to technical glitches at the manufacturers end, the aircraft had to undergo another series of tests before it was certified to fly. In February, Boeing said deliveries would begin in the fourth quarter of 2011.

According to the official, the delay has caused both opportunity and operational losses to Air India, which had planned to deploy the B-787s on long-haul international routes and re-deploy its B-777 aircraft on domestic routes, thereby regaining its lost market share in both sectors.

"This plan of ours has been badly hit (due to the delay in deliveries). Once we have the planes, we can easily redeploy our larger seat-capacity aircraft on the domestic sector and offer more seats at lower prices, thereby shoring up our market share," the official explained.

The official further said that a committee formed under E.K. Bharat Bhushan, who heads the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and which includes aviation ministry officials of joint secretary rank, is actively looking into the issue of delayed deliveries.

Boeing International Corporation India Pvt. Ltd., on its part, confirmed that a compensation package is on the anvil but did not divulge any value or range.

"We are in touch with Air India. They are our very valuable clients," Dinesh A. Keskar,

president of Boeing India and a vice president of the parent company, told IANS.

According to Boeing, the B-787 enables immense fuel-savings as well as greater seat capacity, coupled with the highest cargo capacity than any other aircraft in a comparable category.

The increased savings in operational cost and reduced maintenance outflows, says Boeing, is what Air India requires in its current situation.

"It will be a game-changer for Air India, which will also become one of the earliest operators of B-787s in the world," Keskar said.

The company further said that under an offset clause, around $1.7 billion is being re-invested in an MRO (maintenance repair and overhaul) facility in Nagpur.

Foreign companies are required to set aside a fixed sum from the contract for developing India's civil aviation sector through facilities like maintenance and training institutes.

Air India had ordered 68 aircraft from Boeing in 2006. Of these, 50 were for its own fleet and 18 for its low-cost subsidairy Air India Express that flies on short-haul international routes. Apart from the 27 B-787s, the other aircraft include a mix of B-777s and B-737s.

The 250-seater B-787 aircraft is made of composite materials. Its newly-developed engine and advanced flight technologies make it highly fuel-efficient. The plane can fly up to 16,000 km non-stop.

Boeing's order book for the B-787 worldwide currently stands at nearly 900 aircraft.

Centre to review Dreamliner order

NEW DELHI: In the big first reality check, the government will now have to decide if deep-in-red Air India should cancel the order for the 27 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 787 Dreamliners worth almost $4 billion.
This view has been taken by a panel set up by AI under aviation ministry's financial adviser and DGCA chief Bharat Bhushan to study the compensation it should get from Boeing for the over three-year delay in the Dreamliner's delivery.
"Boeing has offered about $500 million, of which $264 million is notional compensation as that is the difference in price of aircraft ordered by AI and now. Our demand, keeping lost opportunity and other things in mind, was about $1 billion. The panel is of the view that the government and AI board should take a call whether AI needs to persist with this order and a further commitment of almost $4 billion when its financial condition finds difficult to pay for anything at all," said sources.
The Bhushan panel, that includes AI board members Prasant Shukul and former air chief F H Major, is learnt to have taken this call keeping in mind AI's financial condition. UPA-I had placed order for 111 new aircraft worth Rs 50,000 crore. While [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] has delivered all its 43 planes, Boeing's 27 Dreamliners have been delayed and the US major has told AI that their delivery may begin this October.
The national carrier has debt of Rs 40,000 crore, of which Rs 18,000 crore is working capital loan and the rest is for aircraft purchase. Along with accumulated losses of Rs 13,000 crore and dues to vendors of Rs 4,000 crore, the airline is finding it hard to pay anything at all. "In such a situation, the government and the AI board need to take a call whether an additional burden of Rs 18,000 crore should be placed on the ailing airline," said a source.
Consulting firm Deloitte, which vetted AI's turnaround plan, had raised doubts in its report over projections made by AI that said it required 113 more planes on lease over the next five years. Now with the Bhushan panel calling for a review of Dreamliner order, a call will have to be taken soon as Boeing is asking for final resolution of the compensation issue.

Air India In Near-Term Financial Distress

Cash-strapped Air India is grappling with what appears to be an inability to pay for fuel and airport usage charges at a time when it is trying to tide over several debts coupled with a huge revenue loss due to a recent strike by its pilots. But India’s government has stepped in to broker a deal to pay the bills.
Airport operator GMR, which has a controlling stake in both Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) and GMR Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport Ltd. (HIAL), gave an ultimatum to Air India last week to pay airport charges for each individual flight if it wanted to carry on flight operations.
A similar notice has also been sent to Kingfisher Airlines, the country’s second-largest private carrier.
GMR’s tough stance comes against the backdrop of nonpayment of airport fees by Air India and Kingfisher since October and December, respectively.
“The managements of both these airports have had to take this decision after continued consultations with these companies failed to yield payments of outstanding dues,” GMR says. “It is expected that the two airlines will clear major outstanding payments owed by the airlines to the Delhi and Hyderabad airports.”
While state-run Air India owes 2.17 billion rupees ($48 million) to New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and 358.9 million rupees ($8 million) to Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Kingfisher owes 679.8 million rupees ($15 million) to Delhi’s airport and 219.8 million rupees ($5 million) to Hyderabad’s airport.
GMR has threatened to put the two airlines on a “cash-and-carry” mode in case the process of payment of arrears to the two consortia fails to commence from June 1. That means the two firms would need to clear their outstanding dues for every takeoff and landing to continue operating flights out of the two airports.
But on May 31, the government offered to iron out differences between the two GMR-led consortia and Air India. Air India spokesman Kamaljeet Ratan said the government will be successful in negotiating an agreement over the payment issue.
“Talks are on with GMR to allow Air India’s flight operations and also accelerate the process of payment of dues,” Ratan tells Aviation Week.
He adds the state-run carrier likely will not be put on the “cash-and-carry” basis if “all discussions go well with the airport operator.”
This latest threat to halt operations comes as the debt-ridden national carrier is struggling with a host of issues, such as rising fuel prices and pilot discontent.
Last week, Air India was faced with restricted supply of aviation turbine fuel as three public sector oil companies – Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation – cut the supply of fuel to Air India by 20% to all airports.
As a result, Air India had to cancel six flights from the southern city of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
A compromise was later reached between Air India and the oil companies, which agreed to resume supplying fuel after the government carrier agreed to pay the outstanding dues.
“Oil companies and vendors have agreed not to curtail the fuel supply at all airports and give the airline a leeway to combine flights and adjust its loads and daily flight schedules,” Ratan says.
The national carrier had earlier announced that it would call off 12 flights a day until mid-June because it was unable to pay for its fuel supplies. The company, which has been posting losses since 2007, has a debt of around 400 billion rupees ($8.9 billion).
A more serious problem is management’s failure to prepare a credible turnaround plan, which will make the infusion of government funds difficult.
The airline also had to cancel flights due to a 10-day pilots strike last month that cost the company an estimated $2.7 million a day.
“We are not financially in the pink of health. But the operations of the national carrier cannot be brought to a screeching halt,” Ratan says.
Though Air India has not yet disclosed its latest annual results, it posted a net loss of 55.5 billion rupees for the financial year ending in March 2010.
Kingfisher posted a net loss of 10.27 billion rupees for the period ending in March of this year.