All Three for Scheduled checks at one time.Whats the QC dept doing....Sleeping.

regds

MEL

himmat01 wrote:

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What's the news about the NZ B747-400 AI was planning to take on wet lease.

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This is very nice just saw this.

Just wondering is it possible to figure out the name of the aircraft being flown (ex. Sabarmati, Shivaji etc or the registration number)

Regards

Srinivas Rao

Okay confirmed news!!

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=332762&ssid=53&sid=BUS

AI to wet-lease four planes to replace defective aircraft 
 
 New Delhi, Nov 01: Pushed to the wall by repeated criticism from the travelling public and even the Civil Aviation Minister, flag carrier Air-India has decided to take four aircraft on wet-lease to replace as many that were plagued by snags.

The state-owned carrier would wet-lease three Airbus A340-300s to be operated on the prime routes to Europe and the US Boeing B767-300 (Extended Range) for operations on the Kuala Lumpur sector as well as the Mumbai-Bangkok-Hong Kong route, Air-India sources said.

The decision comes in the wake of recent instances of flight cancellations and undue delays, which prompted Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to fly private carrier Jet Airways from London-Heathrow to Delhi last week.

The airline is also understood to be in talks with private carrier Air Sahara to lease a wide-body aircraft.

Air-India has cancelled its flights or reduced the frequencies on some routes, inclduing Amritsar-Birmingham in the past few months.

Some of its long-haul aircraft taken on lease have been developing engine or hydraulic trouble on regular intervals, causing the flights to be delayed or cancelled resulting in the public sector carrier facing the wrath of passengers.

Bureau Report 

The Air New Zealand 747-400 wet lease is in a bit of problem as AI has to work out a suitable package for the Air NZ crew.

Excellent news atleast a variety of different aircrafts for us to experiment and fly with--where will these come from-

The 767-3ER will probably come from S2 as the news article mentioned---What about the 343s where are they coming from ---SAA [the current 9W ones]

Karan

the_380 wrote:

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Secondly the total numbe of 767s sold has been less than the 777s. This proves the point. There is a similarity in some 777 models and 767 models. But on the average the 777 has got maximum orders in such cases. So definately there has to be some problem with it. Probably thats why even Boeing wants to stop the model with its 787 entering.

So i am calling it an almost outdated aircraft- not a fully outdated one, there is yet some time before that

rgds

the_380

-- Edited by the_380 at 11:35, 2006-11-01

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If AI A340s are from 9W, it will be a result of some bold action.

The last time AI got the 9W A340 for its London route, the Left saw to it that that lease was terminated asap.

Nilotpal Basu and Bardhan were screaming murder in Parliament and the exalted 27-member (Rajya and Lok)Parliamentary Committee on Aviation created hell. Even Sharad Yadav joined in and Praful Bhaiyya had no answer. That was when Yadav also called him the Minister for 9W.

(As Vijay Mallya too is a member of the committee, Nilotpal also made it clear that as it was a commercial issue of an airline, and as Mallya was in a rival airline, Parliament should ensure that sensitive commercial issues of PSUs should not be debated in the open.)    

There was an enquiry in AI as to whose "bright idea" it was and even a threat of getting the CAG involved.

Nilotpal's point was that AI could not support a rival. 

                                         ***

From the report of Parliament: (Many thanks to a source)

DEPARTMENT-RELATED PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, TOURISM & CULTURE

REPORT

The Committee on Tourism, Culture and Transport, chaired by Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury, said in its report tabled in Parliament that while formulating the new civil aviation policy, all consequences of mergers of airlines, including the matter of reallocation of infrastructural facilities at airports should be addressed properly.

It also came down heavily on Air India for “lack of transparency” in its procedure while negotiating a wet-lease accord of one A340-330E aircraft last year, which it said was “against the practice of open competitive tendering process”.

“The procedure followed by Air India was against the practice of open competitive tendering process and therefore lacks transparency,” it said.

The committee said Air India had approached only Jet Airways in July 2005 to negotiate the wet lease of one A340-330E aircraft.

“Air India could have approached other airline organisations,” it said, adding the carrier could have anticipated the impending shortage early had there been a constant assessment of available aircraft capacity.

The parliamentary panel said adequate contingency plans should be prepared, including standing arrangements for lease of aircraft during exigencies by following proper tendering process.

"In the context of the requirement by Air India for additional aircrafts from time to time the Committee desires to know whether Air India has entered into short-term lease agreements with private operators in the country during the last two years without following proper tendering procedure.  The Ministry intimated that Air India had signed a wet-lease agreement with M/s. Jet Airways to wet lease A340-300E aircraft for the period of 8th to 27th July, 2005 to operate approximately 19 RT flights from 8th to 27th July, 2005 with lease charges of USD 4200 per Block Hour since Air India was facing acute shortage of B747-400 aircraft capacity during July, 2005 as 3 B747-400 aircraft have to undergo major checks and 2 VVIP movements were also scheduled during the above period.  This would have resulted in cancellation of one line of B747-400 aircraft.   To make good the above aircraft capacity shortfall, Air India held discussions with M/s. Jet Airways to explore the feasibility of leasing one A340-330E aircraft. Since, during the initial discussions M/s. Jet Airways has indicated willingness to wet lease one A340-300E, Air India held further negotiations with M/s. Jet Airways and signed a contract with them to wet lease one A340-300E aircraft and operate approx 19 flights during 9th to 27th July,2005.   The Ministry has added that Air India has avoided cancellation of flights with the following benefits:

i)          The expenditure on denied boarding charges, hotel accommodation, endorsement charges, etc. for the passengers who will have to be transferred to other carriers

ii)         Loss of credibility in the market and inconvenience to passengers on the highly competitive IND/LON route.

iii)         Problems in retaining slots at LHR, in the event of non-operation of flights.

Reduced out-bound loads in August 2005, due to the non-carriage of inbound traffic in July, 2005.

27.       The Committee notes that Air India had approached only M/s. Jet Airways in July, 2005 to negotiate the wet-lease of one A340-330E aircraft.  The Committee is of the opinion that Air India could have approached other Airlines organisations.  The procedure followed by Air India was clearly against the practice of open competitive tendering process, a violation, and therefore lacks transparency.  The Committee feels that the impending shortage could have been anticipated early had there been a constant assessment of the available aircraft capacity. The Committee further recommends that adequate contingency plans should be prepared including standing arrangements for lease of aircrafts during exigencies by following the proper tendering process.

The Committee wants an internal enquiry into the matter and an acknowledgement of the fact that it was a case of improper commercial practices as it was a clear case of supporting a rival airline. The issue of corruption is to be examined also.

Nov. 3, 2006

CNN-IBN and The Hindu say that AI is now getting five aircraft.

1 767 most probabaly from Air Sahara.

1 767 from a British leasing company

3 A340-300s from another British leasing company. 

Negotiations are to be completed by the end of this week. All wet lease with cabin crew from Air India.

                        ****

On Himmat's posting of 2 747s likely from United. United is supposed to be dumping quite a few 747s and going in for predominantly 2 engine operations.

                           ***

AI's fleet is going to get hit more. Its 6 owned 747-400s are supposed to be getting the new Thales IFE. Aircraft are to be grounded for abt 20 days each with the exercise ending in June 2007. (Relative who flew on AI frm JFK to Heathrow on "Konark" said they were still shown IFE on shabby screens.)

Thulasidas has been talking a lot about this in Singapore recently. He was there in connection with AIX's Chennai-Singapore launch flight.