Air India (AI, Delhi International) has grounded a total of 19 aircraft, including both narrowbodies and widebodies, due to a lack of spares, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association's (ICPA) has alleged.
"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 said in an open letter to the airline's management and published in the country's press.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module and Flightradar24 ADS-B data, the following Air India aircraft are currently grounded:
- one A319-100: VT-SCO (msn 3822);
- two A320-200s: VT-ESE (msn 431) and VT-ESJ (msn 490);
- four A321-200s: VT-PPI (msn 3557), VT-PPM (msn 3792), VT-PPT (msn 4078), and VT-PPX (msn 4280);
- one B777-200(LR): VT-ALG (msn 36306);
- five B777-300(ER)s: VT-ALO (msn 36313), VT-ALP (msn 36314), VT-ALQ (msn 36315), VT-ALV (msn 36320), and VT-ALW (msn 36321);
- four B787-8s: VT-ANK (msn 36282), VT-ANO (msn 36286), VT-ANV (msn 36293), and VT-ANX (msn 36295).
It is not clear if indeed all of the above 17 aircraft have been grounded due to a lack of spares.
Air India has been struggling financially for a number of years. As of March 31, 2017, the Indian flag carrier had an accumulated debt of some INR487.8 billion rupees (USD7 billion).
