Air India puts five B777s on sale block
Air India has already taken delivery of 18 737-800s and eight B777-200 LRs, besides 12 B-777-300 ERs.
The airline has also received three Dreamliners out of the 27 on order so far and four more are expected to join its fleet by the fiscal end.
The five B777s, which the carrier has now put up for sale, belong to the same order. The eight 777-200 LRs, of which Air India plans to sell five, are 235-seaters against the industry practice of 290-300 seats.
The idea behind this configuration was to operate them on ultra long-haul routes like Chicago, New York, Toronto etc, on premium fares, but that did not materialise.
This forced the airline to deploy them on medium haul sectors such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and London, rendering the aircraft operations economically unviable.
The aircraft, known as the Worldliner in the aviation parlance, or the one which can pair any two cities on the extremes, can fetch revenue only when operated on ultra-long routes.
In January, Air India had decided to do away with these aircraft by leasing them as soon as it got a firm indication about the delivery of the Dreamliners.
The first dry-lease tender was floated on January 2 this year but having failed to get a buyer it re-issued bids several times before finally scrapping the plan and deciding to go for an upright sale.
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