Air India to induct wide-body aircraft into fleet

NEW DELHI: With a view to expand its network, Air India has planned to induct wide-body aircraft into its fleet. Total 10 grounded aircraft will be brought back into service by early 2023.

A wide-body aircraft is generally deployed on International routes as its bigger fuel tank allows it to travel on long-haul international routes like India-US and India-Canada.

Air India’s wide-body fleet currently stands at 43 aircraft, of which 33 are operational. This is a significant improvement from 28 aircraft that the airline was operating till recently,” said the airline.

The airline on Sunday also announced it will operate daily flights between Delhi and Vancouver (Canada) from August 31 onwards. Currently, it operates Delhi-Vancouver service three times per week. Frequency on this route has been increased keeping in view the growing traffic between India and Canada and has been enabled by the return to service of the wide-body Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft.

The airline said Boeing has been working closely with Air India following its acquisition by Tata Group to restore aircraft that had been grounded for prolonged periods due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other reasons.

It was on January 27 this year when the Tata Group took control of Air India after successfully winning the bid for the airline on October 8 last year.