As expected, Air India has taken the delivery of its latest Boeing 777-200LR aircraft as part of its fleet restructuring program. The airline will deploy the plane on ultra-long-haul flights to North America and will become the second Indian airline after Vistara to offer premium economy cabins to passengers.

First plane arrives

Air India has received a Boeing 777-200LR airplane, which previously flew for Delta Air Lines. The airline will induct around 30 aircraft over the next few months on short-term leases, and five of those are expected to be 777 widebodies.

The remaining 777s will join Air India between December and March 2023. Air India already has three Boeing 777-200LRs in its fleet. The latest aircraft is registered VT-AEF and previously flew for Delta as N702DN (pictured below).

According to ch-aviation, it is almost 15 years old and was delivered to Delta in 2008. As of November 2020, it has accumulated more than 60,000 flight hours across 5,246 cycles.

Air India is doubling down on its flights to North America, and the long-range 777-200LRs will be required for ultra-long routes such as those to the US West Coast, particularly for flights originating in South India. The airline is also bringing back previously dropped routes to the US, such as Bengaluru-San Francisco and Mumbai-New York.

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It is called Vihaan

Air India has named the aircraft Vihaan after its multi-stage transformation roadmap revealed in September.

Fully aware of the challenges it faces in the transformation, Air India has identified key objectives and has given itself five years to achieve them in a phased manner. The primary milestones to hit include “growing both its network and fleet, developing a completely revamped customer proposition, improving reliability and on-time performance, and taking a leadership position in technology, sustainability, and innovation, while aggressively investing behind the best industry talent.”

Changes are already visible in AI’s operations, with the airline topping the OTP charts in October and also optimizing its network. Besides expanding its international reach, Air India has also cut several unprofitable domestic flights where it was losing money.

Premium economy on select routes

Air India isn’t new to 777-200LRs, with three already existing in its fleet. But the latest airplanes will come fitted with premium economy cabins – a first for the airline – and will enable it to compete on an equal footing with other carriers offering the same cabin choices.

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The airline has also restored around 20 aircraft, which were grounded for a long time due to a lack of engines and spare parts. And while there’s still a long way to go in fixing its interiors, Air India has so far procured more than 30,000 parts to make these planes airworthy again.

The current global supply-chain issues have slowed down work on cabin refurbishment on AI’s existing aircraft, but the new team is progressively improving the product, and passengers are likely to see the results in the coming months.

What do you think about Air India’s latest 777 aircraft? Please let us know in the comment section below.

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  Air India

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  AI/AIC

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport

  Year Founded:

  1946

  Alliance:

  Star Alliance

  CEO:

  Campbell Wilson

  Country:

  India

  Region:

  Asia