Reader Sonal Gaurav sends in this picture of the Boeing 777-200ER parked at the Kuala Lampur International Airport. In the background you get to see the Malaysia Airlines B747 as well!

Thank you Sonal

Airline: Thai Airways
Location: Kuala Lampur International Airport
Airframe: Boeing 777-2D7 / HS-TJE

If you want to share a picture of a plane, an airport, or anything aviation related, please send it across to aj@livefromalounge.com with the details and I’ll put it up here. Thank you!

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There has been a lot of talk and speculation on Air India and its fate with the Dreamliners, but looks like it is all falling into place now. Boeing made a massive publicity stint with bringing the 787 to India Aviation 2012, one painted in Air India livery and ready to be given to the airline once the certification is complete, and Air India and Boeing can settle the tussle over the compensation to be paid to AI for the delay. Yours truly was one of the few invited to have a peep inside, and I gladly took the short hop to Hyderabad to explore what AI and Boeing were cooking up together. The plane made a 14 hour flight from Seattle to Delhi, and then continued to Hyderabad after a day’s stopover in Delhi.

Here is a look at what I saw when I arrived, and took a little walk around the plane as I waited for my turn to go inside.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Hyderabad’s Begumpet Airport

A look on the other side

Walking under the belly…

Once we had some space (I was jostling with TV crews and bureaucrats for space inside the plane), I was let in and the first thing I did was to head to the cockpit.

I’ve been to quite a few cockpits but this one was different. Boeing had clearly redesigned the cockpit, and reorganised the panels and the flying experience. However, in the process, they also wanted to keep some similarities. The test pilots who were incharge of this flight told me in a chat that the flight program for the 787 were designed in mind to have something ‘in common’ with the B777 as well, so that there was not a massive new learning curve. So, in theory, a B777 pilot could very well fly the B787 and alternate between the two.

And while I was leaving the cockpit after a nice long chat, I found something interesting in the roof. I was told this was an emergency hatch for the pilot’s evacuation, something I never noticed on another plane before.

A comfortably functional Business Class cabin for AI’s 787

Once I was done strolling around, I came to the main purpose of my visit. The first look at the 787’s inside for the passenger. Here is what I saw:

A 2-2-2 abreast cabin, with 18 seats in all in Air India’s Business Class

A fully-flat bed offering for the Business cabin

A large IFE screen, however, very distant

To put it mildly, Air India did not go through the hoops to design an innovative product for the 787. They just purchased, perhaps the lowest cost seats, and put them on the business cabin. The seat pitch in business class is nice, at about 74 inches, and very comfortable. I lounged around in those seats for a while and could not complain. However, I found the screens to be too distant from the headrest, and I wondered if that little design aspect was thought through before AI ordered for the installation of the screens in the shells rather than having them built into the seat (like the bulkhead seats!)

An ugly economy class for Air India’s 787

While the 787 is a fantastic plane, sometimes an airline can just mess it up. Here is a first look at Air India’s economy cabin, which will have 238 seats in a 3-3-3 (9 abreast) configuration, also known as bonecrushing for those who have to survive a 10+ hour flight in those seats.

The first thing I ended up noticing was not the legendary windows or the innovative 787 features. Someone in AI wanted to design the plane in Air India colors, and as a result, all the seat upholstery is in random shades of red and orange to compliment the AI colors.

A generous 33 inch seat pitch is what you get for your multi-hour scheduled flights on this plane. However, the colors had me put off.

The wide 787 windows were lined up in all the gradients from full-light outside to dark … Like you would know, the 787 does not have any window shades, so the window has a button underneath, which will tint the window into the gradient you’d like.

The shade-less windows

A look at the economy cabin with the Boeing Sky Interiors on.

The Air India Boeing 787 IFE

Air India got the Thales i8000 Top Series IFE for fitment on their new planes. Like you saw above, the business cabin gets some very wide screens and there will be in-seat power and USB access for each seat. All the seats in economy will also get a similar offering, with individual power ports for each seat as a standard offering.

What I could not come to terms with the design of the control panel, which clearly could have been sleeker to start with.

I found my way into the Airshow to see how the location mapping worked, and yes, it looked pretty accurate

I spent a lot more time inside the plane, and I feel if AI could now make a good ‘re-launch’ with this product and fly it on routes that made economic sense, they had a good shot at making a profitable flight with these planes. I’ve posted all the pictures in a separate album available on our Facebook Page. Head up there for over 30 pictures of the AI 787.

On my way out….

Bye Bye Boeing

So, readers, how do you think Air India’s 787 designs stack up for you? And for those who’ve been on the ANA 787, do you think this compares?

Related Posts:

• I am off to Hyderabad for India Aviation 2012
• Air India proposes a $1 Billion compensation, Boeing disposes in $500 Million
• Album with all the AI Boeing 787-8 Pictures

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The MegaDo is a sea of aviation experiences, or so am I told. And to come into the MegaDo will be marked by experiences like the British Airways Denial of Service and a fuel-stop on a non-stop flight was only symbolic. I was reading a few days back on the Wall Street Journal that Transatlantic flights on smaller planes were now having to make a fuel stop before they managed to get to their destination

After I arrived in Brussels on Jet Airways 228, I was to further go to JFK on an American Airlines flight AA171 (BRU-JFK) which was going to fly on an American Airlines 757-200. When I did arrive at the gate agent’s counter after clearing transit security, I was handed over my new boarding pass issued on AA stock, and they did inform me that the flight was supposed to make a fuel-stop for a quick 20 minutes at Bangor, Maine (BGR) airport. Once on the plane, the captain assured us that the three tanks of the plane were full to the brim, and that he’d still need more fuel in case we needed to get into a holding pattern above JFK or for eventualities.

Great, I thought this wouldn’t happen to me but it eventually did. What it meant was moving from a 12:45 PM scheduled arrival to about 2 PM, which already gave me less time in the city. And hoping against hope, we did land in BGR rather than go straight to JFK.

Once there, the captain came on and said it will take us only 20-25 minutes to be a go again. To make us feel better he did inform us that a United/Continental and a Delta flight was also there, and both for refuelling. I did remember reading that Bangor got a lot of business from fuel-handling and mechanical stops after the Atlantic crossings.

Once there, however, we taxied by a lot of transportation planes of the USAF, and parked close by to a Brazilian AF plane. Have a look!

Our Fuel Truck arrives...

Brazilian Air Force transportation planes

The 20 minutes pit-stop quickly turned into a longer one. We actually had a mesaage delivered on the plane by a guy on the ladder truck, who in a primitive communication technique had to actually bang on the front 1L door, at which point the captain authorised the door to be opened again. Yes, the view from seat 1A was very clear and I chuckled on this one. While this was happening, a NASA research airplane quickly pushed back from the hangar.

Short while later, we were informed that the dispatcher in JFK has advised another fuel load to be added to the plane, and the captain was going to comply. Another 20 minutes went by in the second refuelling. We then taxied for take-off, and stopped short of the runway. Here, the captain told us about the weather in JFK (snowing!). He was told by the Air Traffic Controller to wait on the taxi strip for 15 minutes before taking off, because that is how he’d get in time to JFK to land. I wonder if this was a bigger airport, with 100 airplane movements an hour he’d be afforded that luxury or not, but here he had all the time, and he had no option but to wait.

We eventually did arrive in JFK at 2:15 PM, a full 90 minutes later than scheduled, but I was greeted by AA on the door, which was a nice surprise.

And that is the problem with Irregular Operations (IRROPs). I’ve always felt that IRROPs should be treated with higher priority to make sure that passenger inconvenience is reduced to the extent possible. However, it turns out otherwise. IRROPs are frequently, in my experience, put at the back of the queue and this adds to the problems already created for these pax, and also the crew! What do all of you think?

And yes, do not forget to participate in the OWMD swag giveaway which is on all this week!