Defer delivery of Dreamliners till technical issues resolved: Air India engineers

New Delhi: Faced with frequent glitches and grounding of the Dreamliner planes, national carrier Air India’s aircraft engineers body has urged the airline management to defer the deliveries of the remaining six such planes as long as Boeing does not address the technical issues completely.[caption id=“attachment_1070429” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Air India Dreamliners. Reuters[/caption] According to sources, the Air India Aircraft Engineers Association has also sought an extended warranty period for the Boeing 787-800s till the utilisation of these aircraft is improved. Air India, which was the one of the first customers of the Dreamliner planes, currently has 21 Boeing 787-800s in the fleet, of the 27 planes it had ordered with the US aircraft maker in 2005. However, several of the Dreamliners have been grounded in the past due to technical issues. “The association requests the management to put on hold further deliveries of B787s till all technical problems are resolved to the satisfaction of Air India. Boeing should also extend the warranty of aircraft from four years currently to minimum 6 years or till the utilisation of B787s is improved to considerably,” the association said in a recent communication to the management. The government has taken up the various technical issues being faced by the loss-making Air India in operating its fleet of Dreamliner aircraft, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma had informed Parliament during the just concluded Monsoon session. “The Boeing 787-800 Dreamliners have technical reliability issues involving aircraft software as well as failure of some of the components,” he had said. The association in the communication has also urged that the manpower for frequent unscheduled snags to be compensated, including damages towards hampering of the airline’s on-time performance. “Besides, Boeing should also be asked to keep float (inventory) of items which are repeatedly failing,” it said. As a part of its fleet expansion plans, Air India had in January, 2006, placed orders with Boeing Company for 68 aircraft, including 27 Dreamliners and 41 B-777s and B-737-800s. PTI