P.J.
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This Air India Flight Was Delayed For 12 Hours
There are possibly a hundred different ways an airline can lose money, but if an ailing carrier bleeds cash unimaginatively it calls for a special mention. This honour goes to Air India whose officials somehow forgot that an aircraft needed pilots to fly it.
On Tuesday evening, an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft at London's Heathrow Airport lay dormant for close to 12 hours as there were no pilots to fly it back to Delhi. Consequently, the cash-strapped airline had to accommodate around 200 passengers into hotels for the night.
The airline operated its Delhi-London AI flight 111 as scheduled, which departed Delhi at 2.30 AM and landed in London around 6 PM, local time. The said flight has a quick turnaround time and leaves for Delhi in around an hour. "But, on Tuesday, the departure did not take place at the scheduled hour as the airline had not positioned any pilots in London to operate the return leg to Delhi," said an airline source.
The pilots who operated the B787 Dreamliner flight into London could not be roped in as they had crossed their maximum permissible duty time, a limit to work hours laid down by the aviation regulator to ensure flight safety. With no way to get the Dreamliner off the ground, the airline was forced to accommodate all passengers into hotels while the aircraft lay parked at Heathrow.
"The pilots who flew the B787 Dreamliner from Delhi to London were given the mandatory 12-hour rest and then they operated the return flight to Delhi on Wednesday morning," the source added. The London-Delhi flight 112, which was scheduled to arrive at 10.30 AM on Wednesday, landed around 12 hours later, at 10.45 PM. An AI spokesperson said: "Air India had operated B-777 aircraft on January 3, 4 and 5 to London in order to clear the holiday rush. Thereafter, from January 6, the aircraft was reverted to B-787 and the crew was scheduled accordingly. However, due to fog in Delhi, one of the flights was diverted to Mumbai, which led to lot of changes in crew movement. After giving the pilots minimum applicable rest and keeping in view the night curfew in London, the flight was rescheduled to January 7 at 4 AM. Air India regrets inconvenience to passengers."
However, according to an airline source, no AI flight was diverted from Delhi to Mumbai on Tuesday because of fog. But there were a number of fog-related delays, which led to much confusion in the airline's crew scheduling department that handles the job of rostering pilots and cabin crew for flights. "Problems arose in the shuffling between Boeing 777 aircraft and Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the Delhi-London-Delhi route.
After the Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off from Delhi for London on Tuesday, the crew scheduling department realized that they had not positioned any pilots licensed to fly the B787 Dreamliner in London on Tuesday to fly the aircraft back to Delhi. It was a simple case of poor handling of the situation, which led to losses to the carrier," the source added.
The loss would be that of the taxpayer, though. The national carrier has managed to stay afloat under a bailout programme with help from the government in the form of a Rs 30,000 crore package in April 2012. While Tuesday's London fiasco was a stray incident, the going is still rough and AI is likely to post a net loss of Rs 3,900 crore for the last fiscal. The airline, which has a total debt of Rs 40,000 crore, posted a net loss of Rs 5,100 crore in 2012-13 and a net loss of Rs 7,100 crore in 2011-12.
This Air India Flight Was Delayed For 12 Hours Because There Was No Pilot Available To Fly It!
There are possibly a hundred different ways an airline can lose money, but if an ailing carrier bleeds cash unimaginatively it calls for a special mention. This honour goes to Air India whose officials somehow forgot that an aircraft needed pilots to fly it.
On Tuesday evening, an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft at London's Heathrow Airport lay dormant for close to 12 hours as there were no pilots to fly it back to Delhi. Consequently, the cash-strapped airline had to accommodate around 200 passengers into hotels for the night.
The airline operated its Delhi-London AI flight 111 as scheduled, which departed Delhi at 2.30 AM and landed in London around 6 PM, local time. The said flight has a quick turnaround time and leaves for Delhi in around an hour. "But, on Tuesday, the departure did not take place at the scheduled hour as the airline had not positioned any pilots in London to operate the return leg to Delhi," said an airline source.
The pilots who operated the B787 Dreamliner flight into London could not be roped in as they had crossed their maximum permissible duty time, a limit to work hours laid down by the aviation regulator to ensure flight safety. With no way to get the Dreamliner off the ground, the airline was forced to accommodate all passengers into hotels while the aircraft lay parked at Heathrow.
"The pilots who flew the B787 Dreamliner from Delhi to London were given the mandatory 12-hour rest and then they operated the return flight to Delhi on Wednesday morning," the source added. The London-Delhi flight 112, which was scheduled to arrive at 10.30 AM on Wednesday, landed around 12 hours later, at 10.45 PM. An AI spokesperson said: "Air India had operated B-777 aircraft on January 3, 4 and 5 to London in order to clear the holiday rush. Thereafter, from January 6, the aircraft was reverted to B-787 and the crew was scheduled accordingly. However, due to fog in Delhi, one of the flights was diverted to Mumbai, which led to lot of changes in crew movement. After giving the pilots minimum applicable rest and keeping in view the night curfew in London, the flight was rescheduled to January 7 at 4 AM. Air India regrets inconvenience to passengers."
However, according to an airline source, no AI flight was diverted from Delhi to Mumbai on Tuesday because of fog. But there were a number of fog-related delays, which led to much confusion in the airline's crew scheduling department that handles the job of rostering pilots and cabin crew for flights. "Problems arose in the shuffling between Boeing 777 aircraft and Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the Delhi-London-Delhi route.
After the Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off from Delhi for London on Tuesday, the crew scheduling department realized that they had not positioned any pilots licensed to fly the B787 Dreamliner in London on Tuesday to fly the aircraft back to Delhi. It was a simple case of poor handling of the situation, which led to losses to the carrier," the source added.
The loss would be that of the taxpayer, though. The national carrier has managed to stay afloat under a bailout programme with help from the government in the form of a Rs 30,000 crore package in April 2012. While Tuesday's London fiasco was a stray incident, the going is still rough and AI is likely to post a net loss of Rs 3,900 crore for the last fiscal. The airline, which has a total debt of Rs 40,000 crore, posted a net loss of Rs 5,100 crore in 2012-13 and a net loss of Rs 7,100 crore in 2011-12.
This Air India Flight Was Delayed For 12 Hours Because There Was No Pilot Available To Fly It!
