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A quarter of Air India’s fleet grounded due to lack of spares
August 17th 2018
It’s difficult to find some good news about Air India. Read More » This week, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) published an open letter alleging that on average approximately a quarter of Air India’s fleet remains on the ground owing to a severe lack of spare parts.
“Almost 23% of the Air India fleet is grounded for lack of spares. Additionally, a significant number of flights are getting cancelled or rescheduled on a daily basis. There are also aircraft fleet swaps which result in last minute change of inventory resulting in non-optimal revenue management and utilisation. All of this is having a significant impact on the bottom line of Air India,” the ICPA letter read.
“Aircraft worth US$3.6 billion or INR25,000 crore (at today’s list prices) are lying idle in the hangars,” the letter continued.
Air India played down the allegations and referred to the groundings as common practice. “It is a common practice for every airline to ground some of its aircraft for routine maintenance and checks periodically by its engineering department so that the aircraft are fit to fly in conformity to laid down standards,” the flag carrier said.
Specifically, Air India pilots are suggesting that five of the airline’s 15 B777 widebodies remain permanently on the ground, as well as up to four B787 Dreamliners. Moreover, domestic and regional operations are impacted by the grounding of up to eight A320 Family aircraft.
“Of the 20 Airbus A321 aircraft operated by AI, only 12 are available for operation on a daily basis currently. 40% of the Airbus A321 fleet is grounded at various stations for lack of spares. This aircraft is the workhorse of the domestic network operating on high-density routes and has the maximum seating capacity. Such a high percentage of this aircraft type being grounded is criminal at the very least. Considering the high seating capacity, there is a significant loss in revenue on a daily basis,” IPCA said.
Air India has been struggling for years. The Star Alliance member has accumulated debts exceeding US$7 billion. An attempt by the government to sell a majority stake in the airline earlier this year failed because of a lack of interest. Potential investors were put off by the government’s expectation that they had to assume a large portion of Air India’s debt.
