The Tata Group-owned Air India has determined to acquire its maiden batch of wide-bodied A350 plane of Airbus and the primary airplane is more likely to be delivered to the airline by March 2023, sources have mentioned. However, it was not instantly clear what number of A350 plane shall be bought by Air India.
Air India has not purchased a single plane since 2006 when it had positioned orders for buying 111 plane — 68 from the US-based plane producer Boeing and 43 from European plane producer Airbus. A large-bodied airplane like Airbus A350 has a much bigger gas tank that permits it to journey longer distances equivalent to India-US routes.
The Tata Group took management of Air India on January 27 after efficiently successful the bid for the airline on October 8 final yr. Sources on Wednesday mentioned Air India has began asking its senior pilots if they are going to be fascinated with getting the “conversion training” to function A350 plane.
Air India’s pilots are skilled to function the wide-bodied plane of Boeing. Therefore, they should bear “conversion training” to function A350 plane of Airbus. According to Air India’s web site, the airline has whole 49 wide-bodied plane — 18 Boeing B777, 4 Boeing B747 and 27 B787 — in its fleet. The service has 79 narrow-bodied planes in its fleet too.
Sources mentioned Air India is buying A350 plane and is more likely to get its first A350 airplane by March 2023. Since April, the airline’s chairman N Chandrasekaran — who is also the chairman of the Tata Group — has rejigged the highest administration of the airline, bringing in senior and middle-level executives who’ve labored in different firms of the Tata Group equivalent to Tata Steel and Vistara.Air India and Airbus didn’t reply to PTI’s queries concerning the plane procurement.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”