CHENNAI: Ever since a technical snag delayed Air India’s Dreamliner by at least six hours at Singapore airport on Friday, the plane’s crew have been playing catch up. For the third day running, the Chennai-Singapore route that the plane is scheduled to make at 11.30 am, has been rescheduled to 6.30 pm.
And the reason is fatigue. Every single day, the Dreamliner leaves early from Mumbai and flies to Singapore, from where it makes a run to Chennai. From here, the plane returns to Singapore and makes one final trip to Mumbai before calling it a day. “The flight has been rescheduled temporarily because it has such a full schedule that it is unable to make up for the lost time. We will have to put out a spare flight to make up the time lost and only then resume normal flight patterns,” said an Air India official.
The large-bodied Boeing 787 Dreamliner that was inducted into AI’s fleet two years ago, was reintroduced to Chennai on October 1 as it was tasked with handling the Chennai-Singapore daily flight. Given that the delays are anticipated, Air India’s call centre has been trying to keep all its passengers posted on the rescheduled time.