Air India fleet renewal given a go ahead!

The Air India board has given a go-ahead to Air India’s fleet expansion and acquisition plan. By 2008, AI will acquire 17 long-range aircraft and an undisclosed number of short haul aircraft.

The long-range aircraft will be of two categories – 250 seater and 400+ seatares. In 250-seater category, 50 per cent of the aircraft will fly non-stop to the US. The 400 seater aircraft will join in the later part of the five year plan.

While aircraft in the 25-seater category will include Airbus 340 and Boeing 777, 400 plus seater may include the Boeing 747-400 and the Airbus A380.

Air India officials will be present on the maiden flight of the A380 in 2005 and in early 2003 Air India officials will leave for France to evaluate the A380.

The long-range planes will be deployed for flying to US, Far East and Europe. A committee headed by Air India’s director of operations MK Hathi was formed to frame the ground rules for inducting the long range planes into the Maharaja’s fleet.

In short haul Air India will acquire planes in the 160 seater in a two-class configuration. An Air India technical committee will finalise the choice of planes soon. The aircraft in the short haul category will include a mix of Boeing 737NG and Airbus A320/321.

Though the financial aspects of the mega aviation project are not revealed, but an estimated cost of the long-range aircraft is about Rs.500 crore.

After finalizing the choice of planes, the deal will have to go through several other government-appointed committees like the Public Investment Board (PIB) which currently also has the fleet renewal plan of Indian Airlines in its hands. This time consuming process can hamper Air India’s ambitions to complete its fleet renewal plan by 2008.
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what they are goin for:-

-B747/A380 (for later part of 5 year plan)
-A345/B772
-B737/A320/321