Air India to get another eight Dreamliners by December

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has said that out of six Dreamliners, two Dreamliners have already been modified for commercial operations and all six planes will be ready for operation by the end of this month.

While addressing the mediapersons at a press conference here, he said Air India would get another eight Dreamliners by December this year. This will make the total availability of fourteen B-787 Dreamliner aircrafts with Air India by December, 2013.

Singh said that the first commercial flight will restart from May 15, 2013, for which all operational regulatory requirements have been complied with and all pilots have been subjected to the required checks before release for flight duties.

The first international flight is proposed to restart from 22nd May, 2013.Air India proposes to start the following new international routes with these B-787 aircrafts:- Delhi-Birmingham-Delhi : w.e.f. August, 2013, Delhi-Sydney/Melbourne-Delhi: w.e.f. August, 2013, Delhi-Rome/Milan-Delhi: w.e.f. October, 2013 andDelhi-Moscow-Delhi : w.e.f. early 2014

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On the performance of Air India during financial year 2012-13, Singh said the total revenue during the period has increased by about 9.6 percent from Rs. 14,714 crores in 2011-12 to Rs. 16,130 crores in 2012-13.Air India carried 14.05 million passengers in the year 2012-13 as against 13.40 million passengers in previous financial year, which shows a growth of about 5 percent. The net loss of Air India for the financial year 2012-13 has come down by about Rs. 2,261 (Net loss in 2011-12 - Rs. 7,559.74 crores in 2012-13 - Rs. 5,198.55 crores).

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The EBITDA has improved by 2256 crores over previous year and it stands at Rs. 19.45 crores during the financial year 2012-13 [EBITDA in 2011-12 (-) Rs. 2236.95]. Passenger Loan Factor (PLF) has shown a great upward trend. For the whole network operation, the PLF stood 72.7 percent during 2012-13 compared to 68 percent during financial year 2011-12.There is a marked improvement in On- Time Performance ( OTP). The network OTP achieved during financial year 2012-13 has been 77.1 percent(domestic 80.2 percent and international 70.8 percent).