While Air India is preparing to receive its Boeing 787 Dreamliners from Boeing, which should be finally arriving somewhere in May 2012, Japan Airlines seems to have stolen the thunder from Air India by being the first airline to operate the 787 services to India. The picture you see above is from JAL’s 787 first approach at Delhi’s Airport.
Japan Airlines recently received its Boeing 787 planes, and used the first one to start a Boston-Tokyo service which is a new route, with effect from May 1, 2012, they’ve also pressed this plane into service on the Tokyo-Delhi-Tokyo route, making JAL the first operator to bring the 787 planes to India commercially. There is good reason to believe this makes economic sense, since JAL spokesperson reveal that the earlier operation was on 70% capacity of a Boeing 777, which fits perfectly well for the size of a 787 to fly the route (with fuel savings being an added advantage).
Air India is preparing to deploy its B787’s on various routes from Delhi and Mumbai (including to Frankfurt, and a proposed service to Sydney and Melbourne). But seems like making advance announcements is out of fashion at Air India and hence no one has a clue as to which date will the plane be deployed on which route.
I’d recently visited the Boeing 787 Static Display plane from Air India at Indian Aviation 2012, and my view is that Air India will not make an experience out of this unique opportunity to fly the 787s. You can check out the cabins of the new plane here, which already look quite ‘tired’.
Next up, Lufthansa is bringing the 747-8 to India after taking it to Washington DC. Glee. Now waiting for the oldish A380 to land on Indian shores.
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(HT to DELAPPROACH for the pictures)
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Posted by AJ |
Tags: Air India, B787, Boeing, Dreamliner, JAL, Japan Airlines
I’m reserving comment on the bailout of Air India till a little later when I can write a long post about it, but the big news is that the airline which taught Singapore Airlines the ropes of being a magnificent airline stays in business for the time being, on a $5.3 billion dole though to which my tax payments will generously contribute. Heck, I don’t even get miles for this generous contribution to someone else’s balancesheet 
!
Now, I’ve been interested in tracking the progress of the Air India 787 for a long time, and that they will get these 27 planes is now confirmed with the bailout as well. I had a good look at the planes in Hyderabad last month, and I came back super (un)impressed. The earlier prediction on these planes was that they will be used to start flights to MEL, but it seems the bigger picture is now falling into place.
According to this report with the Economic Times put out last week, Frankfurt, London and Melbourne, Sydney will be the places covered with the first 3 planes coming to Air India. Here is a timeline of operations below:
I am slightly surprised, because I’ve heard the loads on the Frankfurt flight is usually very decent (80%) kinds from some friends and they fly bigger jets like the 777 there. So, I am trying to do the numbers to see if the 787 fits the bill here.
Given the state of how things move at Air India with bureaucrats at the helm, I am not sure if the timelines will be kept fully, but I am sure trying to get my hands on tickets on the 787 domestic tickets to review, and I’ll post it when I see availability right here.
What do you guys think? Right move or wrong one for AI?
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Posted by AJ |
Tags: 787, AI, Air India, B787, Boeing
As a part of the switch to the domestic schedule from 26th March onwards, Air India has made the following changes to its schedule and capacities:
Added 3 new flights:
- Delhi – Bahrain – Delhi
- Visakhapatnam – Dubai – Visakhapatnam
- Hyderabad – Kolkata – Hyderabad
In addition, services on the following routes have been increased:
- Delhi – Tokyo – Delhi : From 4x to 5x per week
- Delhi – Dammam – Delhi : From 2x per week to 7x flights
- Delhi – Riyadh – Delhi : From 2x per week to 3x per week
- Mumbai – Cochin – Mumbai : From 1x daily flight to 2x daily flights
And while it was upto it, it upgraded its equipment on a few of the segments as well:
- Mumbai – Riyadh – Mumbai on a B777 instead of B747
- Delhi – Singapore – Delhi on a B777 instead of A319
- Mumbai – Singapore – Mumbai on a A330 instead of A320
- Delhi – Visakhapatnam – Delhi on a A321 instead of CRJs
They are now offering all Flying Returns (Air India’s Loyalty program), members a 100% bonus mileage for flights taken from 1st April 2012 to 30th June 2012 on any of these routes.
I’ve been a Flying Returns member for a very long time now, about 8 years or so, but over the years I’ve moved most of my flying to Jet Airways in India. Recently, they made some good changes to the program, which were perhaps in the run-up to joining the Star Alliance. The good thing about an Air India award ticket is you will usually get open seats all the time and at a reasonable rate.
Going by this bounty, I hope if and when they do join the Star Alliance, there will be another big promotion from their end then. In the meanwhile, if you fly AI, these are some bonus mileage opportunities for you.
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Posted by AJ |
Tags: AI, Air India, Bonus miles, Flying Returns
