National carrier Air India’s struggle to get rid of its five Boeing 777-200LR aircraft has continued into 2013. The airline, which made several attempts to lease out and sell off the planes in 2012, has put out a fresh tender on January 1 to sell the planes.
?We haven’t yet received a good offer for the planes,? an Air India board member told FE. ?We think that the planes are gas guzzlers and that is why we haven’t got a good response to our offers for sale and offers for lease in the past.?
?In case this tender is also not successful, we will look at other options including re-configuration of seats to utilise the planes,? the person added.
The planes have a list price of $291 million per plane and Air India are expecting to get anywhere between $80-85 million per plane.
The five planes have not been deployed on flight duties since the Boeing 787 Dreamliners started operating on international routes since October 2012. Air India owns three more Boeing 777-200LRs which have been used to service destinations like Paris, Hong Kong, New York and Shanghai.
The Air India official quoted declined to comment on the cost of keeping the five planes grounded but said, ?We would be losing more money if we operated them.?
Although the national carrier calls the plane a gas guzzler, industry experts say that the aircraft has been used in an ?inefficient? manner by Air India.
?The 777-200LR is meant to be an ultra-long haul aircraft,? said a former Jet Airways official. ?The engines are heavy and burn a lot of fuel but operating them on ultra-long haul routes makes them profitable.?
?Also the plane is typically used in a two-class seating configuration which maximises the utilisation,? the official added. ?Air India is the only airline in the world which has a three class configuration on the 777s.?
Jet Airways operates a fleet which includes Boeing 777-300ER for its international operations.
