Air India hopes to get its Boeing 787 operating on domestic routes from the middle of May and start long-haul international flights linking Paris and Frankfurt by the end of May.

This follows the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approving a new battery design for the Boeing 787. A fault in the battery saw the FAA ground the latest civilian aircraft globally on January 17. The move saw Air India, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Lan Chile and a few other airlines ground their entire fleet of Boeing 787.

The airlines which have the Boeing 787 will now have to wait for the FAA to issue an Airworthiness Directive (AD), which should be issued in the next few days before they can start work on getting the aircraft back in the air.

``After the AD is issued, Air India will wait for the arrival of engineers from Boeing to start work on the Boeing 787. The new tools for installing the batteries have arrived and the new batteries will arrive in the next few days. We hope to work on two aircraft at a time,” a senior AI official said. The airline has six Boeing 787 in its fleet. It is likely to take up to a week to finish work on each aircraft.

The airline plans to wait till at least two Boeing 787 are in a position to fly before restarting services. Air India will also need to get clearance from the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation before restarting flights, as it was on its orders that the six aircraft were grounded.

Before the grounding the airline used the Boeing 787 to operate daily flights from Delhi to Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata apart from connecting the Capital to Paris, Frankfurt and Dubai.

The grounding of the Boeing 787 was leading to a loss of Rs 20 crore a month for the airline, which could have lost more than Rs 60 crore in the three months that the six aircraft have been sitting idle at Delhi airport.

Air India was hoping that the aircraft would help turnaround its financial fortunes as the Boeing 787 is more fuel efficient as it is lighter than most other commercial aircraft.

The reintroduction of the Boeing 787 could also see Air India expand its global footprint. The airline can again consider launching flights to Rome, Moscow, Beijing and to either Melbourne or Sydney in Australia.

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