Despite being plagued by recurring technical glitches, the national carrier Air India will complete acquisition of the 27 Dreamliners from Boeing before April, and will take delivery of the 23rd B–787 early January.
“We will be taking delivery of the 23rd Boeing 787 Dreamliner on January 9 and hope to have the last batch of four more Dreamliners by the end of this fiscal year. That will have us completing the process that started more than a decade ago in 2006,” Air India Finance Director Vinod Hejmadi told PTI.
Hejmadi was in the city to deliver the keynote address at the 112th birthday celebrations of the airline founder JRD Tata over the weekend. He founded the airline as Tata Airlines on October 15, 1932, which was taken over by the government later.
In 2016, the American aviation giant delivered two Dreamliners to Air India against the plan of three. It was supposed to deliver the 23rd plane in November/December.
The national carrier had in January 2006 ordered as many as 68 Boeing aircraft, making Air India one of the launch customers for what Boeing claimed as a game-changing plane.