With Air India's first Boeing 787 Dreamlinerlanding here on Wednesday, a definitive delivery schedule for the aircraftwould be firmed up soon as two more are ready for delivery, official sourcessaid.
The last hurdle in taking delivery of this plane has been cleared with the Lawand Justice Ministry giving its nod to the compensation settlement agreementwhich Air India would sign with the US plane-maker for the almost four-yeardelay in its deliveries.
An Air India team, including pilots, engineers and crew, has already reachedBoeing's South Carolina facility to go through the formalities as soon as theyget a nod from the airline's top brass here, they said.
A definitive delivery schedule would follow soon and it could involve the firstfew of these long-haul planes being delivered in 7-10 day intervals, thesources suggested.
With the first aircraft coming in now, Air India plans to take delivery of all27 of them by 2016.
The Dreamliners' delivery was to take place in 2008 and the rest by October2011. But their delivery was delayed due to various factors, including sparesupply delays and labour trouble.
The induction of the plane would enable Air India mount several newinternational flights, including those it plans to launch for Melbourne andSydney this winter.
The twin-aisle aircraft can typically carry between 210 and 250 passengers onroutes of 14,200 km to 15,200 km distance, while using 20 per cent less fuelthan airplanes of similar size. This is because of its lighter weight as it ismade out of carbon composite material, instead of aluminium.
However, the aircraft would be flown on busy domestic routes for about twomonths for the already-trained pilots to practice more on take-offs andlandings, before it is put into service on long-haul international routes, thesources said.
Air India was the second airline to place orders for 27 B-787s but two Japanesecarriers, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, and Ethiopian Airlines have alreadystarted flying them.
Boeing's Dreamliner programme recently suffered a setbackwith loss-making Australian carrier Qantas cancelling orders for 35 of them.The US aircraft manufacturer has invested an estimated USD 14 billion or moreto develop the wide-body jet.
Last minute hitch in Air India taking delivery of theaircraft was also caused by an incident in which debris fell off a Dreamliner'sengine during a pre-flight test at the Charleston Airport in South Carolina.This particular plane was made for Air India.
The US National Transport Safety Board probed the incident,following which India's Director General of Civil Aviation sought a report fromits American counterpart -- Federal Aviation Authority -- on it. The safetyclearance has now been given by both US and Indian authorities.