The government on Friday gave a go-ahead to Air India to induct the much-awaited Boeing 787 Dreamliners into its fleet but would conduct separate negotiations on the issue of compensation for failure of the aircraft to meet performance guarantees.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the proposal of Civil Aviation Ministry, at a meeting this evening, and allowed Air India to take delivery of 27 Boeing 787 aircraft after signing the Delay Compensation Settlement Agreement, an official release said.
The issue relating to compensation for failure to meet performance guarantees has been delinked from the Delay Compensation Settlement Agreement, which shall be negotiated separately by an Empowered Group of Officers after actual evaluation of the performance of the delivered B—787s, the release said.
These aircraft were scheduled to be delivered between September 2008 and October 2011, but due to certain design and production issues the deliveries were delayed.
Now, these planes are scheduled to be delivered between June, 2012 and March, 2016.
Keywords: CCEA, Air India, Dreamliners aircraft, Boeing 787
Dear Editor: The news item probably captures the obvious in unstated words - GOI has absolutely no leverage to enforce performance guarantees. Or is it a story of that leverage having been compromised? Also one would like to understand the need for inducting the 787's into the Indian fleet? These are more expensive and consume more fuel than the fuel efficient 737max and the A320neo.Is there sufficient traffic to justify these super jumbos? If so, why is Air India running up successive years of losses? For the record, the 787 jet which was to be delivered to Air India caught fire in Charleston, SC and investigations are underway, specifically looking at the GE powered engines.
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