Air India plans to reinstate 100% of its ‘long-grounded’ fleet since the takeover by the Tata Group around two years ago, sources told FE.
According to sources, over 95% of the ‘long grounded’ fleet, which included Boeing 787s, 777s, and some narrowbody Airbus A320 type aircraft, has already been made airworthy.
“Out of all the ‘long-grounded’ aircraft, only two are left to be reinstated into the fleet.”
“Many of these aircraft were grounded due to a lack of components and engine shortages. Now that we are witnessing an improvement in the supply chain, the remaining two will also be made airworthy soon.”
At the time of takeover by the Tatas, Air India had over 30 ‘long grounded’ aircraft in its fleet, which included both wide and narrowbody planes.
As per sources, apart from components, even the cabin interiors had to be given a makeover.
“Thousands of seats in all these aircraft were fixed and the inflight entertainment systems restored in as many old aircraft as much as possible. In some cases, over 30,000 spares per aircraft were required. The entire cabin space was also spruced up.”
“One of the key lessons from this experience was to have in-house capabilities and facilities for the supply of spares.”
The airline has also pledged over $400 million to completely refurbish its legacy widebody fleet of 43 Boeing 777s and 787s starting next year.
This initiative will see a complete change in interiors, from seats to inflight entertainment systems, carpets, curtains, galleys, and lavatories, amongst others.
Furthermore, sources said that the reinstated fleet has helped the airline increase fleet utilisation levels, along with making the network more resilient.
In addition, the airline has increased capacity, restarted some old international routes and launched some new ones.