AI to have 27 Boeing Dreamliners by 2014

Air India is expected to get its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner by September and have all 27 aircraft join its fleet by 2014.

"The deliveries of all 787 dreamliners will start from the second quarter of the next financial year and will complete by 2014. These fuel-efficient aircraft will help us reduce costs of our long-haul operations," said an Air India official, requesting anonymity.

The government carrier will get the delivery of seven Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in 2011 followed by six in 2012. In the next two years Air India will acquire seven aircraft each.

B-787-800 can seat 210 passengers and are made of composite materials making it lighter and consumes 20 per cent less fuel than other aircraft.

Air India plans to deploy these on long-haul sectors like India-US and India-Australia for non-stop operations.

Of the 111 aircraft Air India had ordered in 2005, 27 of them are Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Though the Boeing 787 aircraft project got delayed, the company has an order book of 840 aircraft from 55 customers around the world, making it the fastest-selling new commercial jetliner even before its first test flight.

Air India is also considering swapping three Boeing 777-300 ER (Extreme Range) with the Boeing 737-800.

The Boeing 777-300 ER is a long-haul aircraft to be used for non-stop international operations (14-15 hours flights), whereas the Boeing 737-800 is a single-aisle short-haul aircraft, best for domestic and short-haul international operations.

Air India has asked for another equity infusion of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) from the government to improve its financial condition and debt-equity ratio. The government had injected Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) recently and Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) in 2009-10, taking the equity base to Rs 2,145 crore (Rs 21.45 billion).

AI's annual interest payment is around Rs 1,800 crore (Rs 18 billion) on debt of Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) (Rs 19,000 crore [Rs 190 billion] is high-cost working capital debt) and has accumulated losses of Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion).The carrier lost Rs 5,551 crore (Rs 55.51 billion) in 2009-10.

The carrier wants to freeze pay rises and promotions for its 31,000 employees for the next three years. It has an annual wage bill of Rs 3,100 crore (Rs 31 billion) and will see 2,600 employees retire by 2014.