Sources have confirmed to me that Boeing did not deliver a 787 to Air India today and further revealed that the company was not expecting to make a delivery from the Boeing Charleston facility today. There is still no confirmed date as to when Air India will allow a delivery to take place. Boeing is ready to deliver the three 787s parked at Charleston and is awaiting word from Air India. It was close, it seems, as of last Wednesday when ZA236 took a test flight but then rumors started to come out that the Indian Ministry of Finance as not signed off on the transfer of the final payment to Boeing. Again this further erodes any confidence that these airplanes will be delivered anytime soon. This entire episode is further proof of the incompetence and mismanagement at Air India and the Government of India itself.
In the meantime there are 4 787s (3 with Air India livery) that are parked at Charleston. The fourth aircraft is widely believed to be ZA238 which experienced the engine issue last month and now has a replacement engine. I anticipate that this airplane can make its first flight in about two weeks.
Lastly there was a line move in Everett and ZA537 (LN 74, CC-BBB) for LAN has been pushed out onto the 40-51 ramp to finish off minor assembly tasks before being sent over to the paint hangar. I anticipate that this airplane can deliver sometime in early to mid October since Boeing has a very full ramp of 787s that they need to deliver ahead of this particular aircraft.
Meanwhile ANA will be gearing up to take ownership of its 12th 787 as ZA100 conducts it customer test flights.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Uresh, sorry but cannot agree with your sweeping statement "This entire episode is further proof of the incompetence and mismanagement at Air India and the Government of India itself."
Please read the press release carefully, the CCEA has given conditional approval to the deal. It is subject to certain conditions.
Please also appreciate the political atmosphere in India where the government is under fire from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. So If GoI is taking some extra steps and wants to dot the i's and cross the t's, we should be not be so judgemental.
Post a Comment