Air India rules out plans to ground Dreamliners

But it is reviewing the fleet to see if they are using more fuel than promised

National carrier Air India today said it had no plans to ground the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as the fleet was doing good and there were no safety concerns attached with them.

Both the Boeing and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have looked into every fleet incident reported in the last 18 months and had assured no safety issues involved with them, said Air India chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan today.

"The incidents being reported are usual in a new aircraft and everyone was trying to adjust to the new machines. These relate to minor software-related issues or some small technical snags. However, we are quite satisfied with the quality of service, the fleet's economics among others," he said.

Understanding them, the Boeing was upgrading the software on the Dreamliners that had entered the Air India fleet till December last year.

The number of incidents involving such snags was gradually coming down, added Nandan, while speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of fourth India Aviation 2014 here on Wednesday.

Air India, which has a sizeable fleet of Dreamliners, said issues related to fuel efficiency and equipment supply would be analysed during the 18 months ending November this year.

The airline said it had decided to phase out some of its ageing fleet. Under this, "nine very old ATRs and 19 A320s would be off the fleet soon," said Nandan.