By Saurabh Chaturvedi and Anirban Chowdhury
NEW DELHI--National carrier Air India Ltd. will resume
commercial flights on its Boeing Dreamliner 787 planes, close to
four months after the planes were grounded on safety concerns,
India's aviation minister and its aviation regulator said
Tuesday.
The airline will operate the first flight from Delhi to
Bangalore on Wednesday, minister Ajit Singh told reporters.
International flights on the Dreamliner will resume May 22, he
said.
India's aviation regulator had ordered Air India to ground its
Dreamliner fleet in mid-January, matching an order by the Federal
Aviation Administration on U.S.-registered 787s after battery
malfunctions on two flights operated by Japanese carriers raised
safety concerns. The India regulator earlier this month lifted the
ban after Boeing started replacing the battery system on Air
India's Dreamliners.
By the end of the month, all six Dreamliners that Air India
currently owns will be back in service. The airline has ordered a
total 27 Dreamliner planes as part of the $15 billion order for 111
Airbus and Boeing planes.
Resuming flights on the brand-new Dreamliner planes will help
the state-run carrier run more fuel-efficient operations, a key
requirement for the carrier to cut its losses. The airline has been
unprofitable since 2007 after it merged with another state-run
carrier, Indian Airlines, hit by high fuel and interest costs and
stiff competition from low-fare carriers.
Over the last few years, Air India has survived on cash handouts
from the government, which said it plans to inject 300 billion
rupees ($5.5 billion) over 20 years into the airline and 50 billion
rupees in the current financial year through March 31.
Air India cut its losses 31% to 52 billion rupees in the last
fiscal year and aims to further narrow losses to 40 billion rupees
in the current year.
Write to Saurabh Chaturvedi at saurabh.chaturvedi@wsj.com and
Anirban Chowdhury at anirban.chowdhury@wsj.com
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