Date:26/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/09/26/stories/2006092600020700.htm

Back Ministry plans to review engg dept of AI, Indian

Ashwini Phadnis

Fleet grounded due to lack of engines leading to cancellation of flights

New Delhi , Sept. 25

With the schedules of both Air India and Indian getting affected due to engineering problems plaguing its fleet, the Ministry of Civil Aviation plans to review the engineering department of the two airlines.

"We have taken a serious view of the various incidents and will examine all the issues before deciding on what needs to be done," a senior Government official told Business Line.

Officials unhappy

The functioning of the engineering department of the two airlines was also raised at the Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting held in Kolkata recently.

At the meeting, senior Government officials and several Members of Parliament expressed unhappiness at the functioning of the department.

While over the past few months, Indian has seen a portion of its fleet grounded due to lack of engines, AI aircraft have been involved in various incidents in the past few days that have forced it to cancel its regular flights.

AI officials maintain that only some of the aircraft in the fleet were giving trouble.

"The airline has a mixed fleet of owned and leased aircraft. The owned aircraft are functioning fine. However, there could be some issues with the leased aircraft.

The management is doing everything in its powers to ensure that these issues are sorted out and least inconvenience is caused to the passenger," a senior AI official said.

Problem with combi

The airline, however, admitted that there had been some problem with one particular aircraft, a Boeing 747-400 combi, that had been having trouble despite being certified by the manufacturer recently. "There were some disruptions in the past due to the grounding of this aircraft. We are taking remedial steps by sending aircraft in our fleet, including the leased Boeing 777 and Boeing 747 aircraft, abroad for overhaul," sources said.

Indian, too, faced similar problems as several of its aircraft were grounded thereby effectively reducing its fleet strength.

After a review meeting chaired by the Minister for Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Praful Patel, the airline decided to start sending engines abroad for overhauling.

The move is expected to help the airline have its entire fleet of more than 40 aircraft in operational condition by the year-end.