New Delhi – Air India is facing new turbulence following last week's fatal crash as additional safety inspections on the Dreamliner fleet led to flight delays, cancellations and increased passenger anxiety.
India's aviation safety regulator ordered a deeper check on the airline-run Boeing 787 aircraft, which killed at least 270 people, including 241 passengers and crew, shortly after a London-bound flight crashed during takeoff in Ahmedabad city on June 12th.
Preventive testing, including airspace closures in Middle Eastern countries, has been straining Operation Air India across national and international routes.
Air India has cancelled operations of a total of 83 widebody flights, including 66 Dreamliner, data shared by the Director of Civil Aviation, India's Aviation Safety Regulator.
“There are operational implications. We are very careful and we are doing extra checks beyond normal,” said the executives at the company who are familiar with the issue, on condition of anonymity as they are not allowed to speak to the media.
On Tuesday, the company announced the cancellation of multiple flights, including one flight from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick. Another from Delhi to Paris was cancelled as mandatory pre-flight checks identified an unidentified issue, the airline said in a statement.
In a statement Tuesday, the Aviation Administration said surveillance conducted in Air India's Dreamliner Fleet to date has not discovered “major safety concerns.”
The aircraft and associated maintenance systems have been found to comply with existing safety standards, the Directorate said, adding that 24 of the 33 aircraft have completed inspections and four have undergone long-term maintenance. The rest was expected to complete the safety checks soon.
However, regulators raised concerns about maintenance-related issues reported by airlines and advised them to “comply with regulations.” Air India called for increased internal coordination across engineering, operations and ground processing units to ensure adequate availability of spares to mitigate flight delays.
Experts from the Indian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are investigating crashes with support from UK, US and Boeing officials.
Aviation experts say the crash will present a temporary challenge for Air India, which was in the midst of transforming from a financially troubled airline into a beneficial venture.
“When we ask whether the accident will derail our ambitious growth plans, we can't look back,” said Jitendervargava, former executive director of Air India.
The company has already placed big orders for new aircraft to expand its business. The current challenge has been to boost morale for employees and passengers through confidence building measures, Balgava said.
“The faster you forget about this one-off accident, the better it will be,” Balgava said.
The sons of Indian conglomerate Tata took over Air India in 2022, reverting debt-rich domestic airlines to private ownership after decades of government control. The $2.4 billion deal was seen as a government effort to inflict losses on state-owned businesses. Also, in a sense, it was the return of Air India, which was released by the Tata family in 1932.
Since its acquisition, Air India has ordered hundreds of new planes, redesigned its branding and colouring, and absorbed small airline Tata.
Air India has ordered around 30 trainer aircraft and has established one of South Asia's largest training academies for professionals.
