Air India’s 10% fleet lying idle for want of spares

For want of spares and engines, more than 10 per cent of Air IndiaÂ’s (AI) fleet is lying idle, with 13 of its 106 planes grounded. Such high number of grounded aircraft indicate highly mismanaged affairs at the ailing carrier, feel industry sources. Such a situation should not
have arisen at all as the government has pumped in more than Rs 6,500 crore into the airline in this fiscal year alone, an official said

The official said that in addition to these 13 planes, AI has not been using its six B787 Dreamliners for the past two months and its five B747 jumbos have limited commercial operations, the sources said. So many planes grounded despite the government pumping in so much money indicates a very poor management, said aviation safety expert Captain Mohan Ranganthan. This is not normal at all for an airline but Air India is heavily mismanaged so itÂ’s not a surprise to see such a portion of its fleet doing nothing.

It does show that the management needs to get a grip of its idle inventory, said Saj Ahmad, a London-based aviation expert. AI said it had already placed orders for the required spares for the grounded aircraft. Even the government pumping in so much into the airline to keep it afloat is not normal. Despite getting so much money the airline is offering cheap tickets just to show good load factors, which defeats all logic, said Ranganathan.