Air India’s First 787 Dreamliner to be inducted in May

Air India is going to launch the first of its much-awaited Boeing 787 Dreamliners in May this year. The Dreamliner will operate from hubs like Delhi and Mumbai – two popular gateways for foreign flyers taking flights to India.

Air India is all set to introduce the first of its long overdue 27 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in the month of May 2012. As per the new reports, the Dreamliner will be inducted in the second or the third week of the month. To operate the Dreamliner, 30 pilots of Air India will have their initial training in Singapore.

The aircraft will be operational from two major airports of the country, Delhi and Mumbai. The flying schedule of this new aircraft takes the assumption of it flying 4500 hours yearly as the basis, which means a daily operation of up to 12-13 hours.

The Dreamliner is the same aircraft that was exhibited at the Hyderabad air show in last month.

As per India Today, a leading Indian news magazine, the vice-president of Boeing International Trading Dinesh Keskar informed that the second Dreamliner is to be delivered in June. “A Dreamliner is ready in Seattle. We had brought it to Hyderabad (for the air show) to showcase it. The government and Air India will have to decide when to take it,” Keskar was quoted as saying by the magazine.

The airline plans to operate the aircraft particularly on long-haul routes for outbound and inbound flights to India.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner is lightweight aircraft made of composite materials like carbon fibre. The aircraft has been reported in the past to be 20% more fuel-efficient than other equally sized aircrafts and would help Air India in trimming down its operational costs considerably.

Besides, budget holiday makers looking for cheap tickets on long haul travel can in the long run hope to have better chances of netting cheap flight to India aboard Air India’s Dreamliner, should the airline decide to pass on the savings to the end user.

The national carrier is hoping to get the delivery of at least three of these planes by the end of this year.