Friday, August 3, 2012

Air India to be allowed to take delivery of 787s...sort of

BREAKING...Air India's agreement with Boeing (the Delay Compensation Settlement Agreement) has been approved by to GoI's CCEA permitting Air India to take delivery of the 787s.  Further the issue of performance shortfalls and any compensation relating to that issue has been de-linked from the delay compensation issue and will be negotiated at a later date by the GoI with Boeing.

This is all good news for Boeing but Air India is stil not going to take delivery because of the GEnx-1B engine issue that arose last week.  Air India Maintenance Department wants to be sure of the safety of the engine before inducting the aircraft into AI's fleet.  There's no telling how long that will take but the GEnx engine is still flying on the 747-8 and the JAL 787s without an issue so this is another delaying tactic on Air India part...again.

Here's the text of the GoI's decision (thanks to HK Expat for the link):

Delivery of Boeing 787 Approved
CCEA Decision

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the proposal of Ministry of Civil Aviation as per following:

(i) Air India be allowed to take the delivery of 27 numbers of B-787 aircraft after signing the Delay Compensation Settlement Agreement.

(ii) The issue relating to compensation for failure to meet performance guarantees has been delinked from the Delay Compensation Settlement Agreement, which shall be negotiated separately by an Empowered Group of Officers after actual evaluation of the performance of the delivered/inducted B-787 aircraft. The Ministry of Law & Justice would examine and endorse the enabling legal provisions / aspects of the negotiations.

Air India would derive the benefits on account of the induction of the latest state-of-art technology Boeing aircraft which are more fuel efficient than its’ competitors.

Background:

Air India is planning to induct 27 numbers 787 aircrafts in its fleet as part of the contracted deliveries of the aircraft from M/s. Boeing. These aircrafts were scheduled to be delivered from September, 2008 to October 2011. However, due to certain design / production issues these aircraft have been delayed and are now scheduled to be delivered between June, 2012 to March, 2016.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The recent flying by LN5/ZA005, I wonder if this is flight testing of the GEnx-PIP2?

As this test aircraft is a GE frame.