Air India's pilots union, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), is still waiting for a meeting with the new Air Indian Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Rohit Nandan.
“We haven't met him yet. There's no meeting scheduled also,” an ICPA member told Business Line . Mr Nandan is expected to arrive in Mumbai this week, according to the Mumbai-headquartered airline's officials.
“The new Chairman was in Delhi till now. He is expected to come and take charge in Mumbai this week and meet the employees,” said an airline official.
Dreamliner Deliveries
Meanwhile, airline officials also said that they expect to take delivery of the first seven Boeing 787 Dreamliner between December and March. “Seven more will be delivered in stages up to 2014 and the remaining 13 will be delivered after March 2014,” said the airline officials.
The wide-body aircraft will be deployed on the routes where the Boeing 777 currently operates.
Fleet Expansion
Air India also plans to curtail the fleet expansion plan due to lower traffic projections. The airline plans to increase its fleet size to around 230 aircraft by 2020. It had previously planned on increasing the fleet size to close to 250 aircraft by 2020.
Air India currently has an operational fleet of 135 aircraft. Among the new inductions in the fleet, 40 aircraft will be for its planned low cost domestic operations. The airline will also induct 40 aircraft for its low-cost international arm, Air India Express by 2019.