Air India is under utilising its Boeing Dreamliner fleet, due to flight crew shortage as well as technical issues with only 21 planes being deployed for operations every day, an airline source said. Air India has 27 Dreamliners in its fleet at present. The 256-seater Boeing 787 is majorly used for carrying out airline's European operations besides catering its services to Singapore, Japan, Australia, China, Thailand, Israel, South Korea and Dubai. "Of the 27 planes, 3 are on ground due to want of spares, while 3 are being used on a rotational basis. So effectively, only 21 aircraft are in service on any given day," the source said, alleging that the underutilisation was due to scarcity of commanders. An Air India official said that only 3 aircraft were on ground, while the rest 24 planes are servicing the various routes. <br/>
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United Airlines is on a roll in the traffic department. The carrier realised another huge surge in traffic in almost every region of the world in August, according to the carrier’s August ops report released late Monday. United's domestic traffic climbed a very healthy 10% overall. Under the domestic banner, United’s regional route network recorded a big 21% increase in traffic compared to a year ago. Traffic on mainline flights was up 8% year over year. Internationally, the overall increase in traffic was 5%, but on trans-Atlantic routes, where traffic has been especially heavy this summer, United’s traffic grew 9.8% compared to a year ago. Latin American traffic also climbed 6.6% year over year. The only down region was Asia Pacific, where traffic dropped 2.1% year over year. <br/>
Several lawmakers are questioning airlines and the DoT about the fees carriers charge passengers to check their luggage or select a seat. The queries came after 2 US airlines — JetBlue Airways and United Airlines — raised the price to check a first bag on their flights by US$5 to $30. JetBlue also increased cancellation and date-change fees, following a similar move by Alaska Airlines earlier this year. United recently said by the end of the year it would charge travellers to select preferred seats, those with standard legroom located toward the front of the cabin. In a letter to 11 airlines dated Sept 6, senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal, and representative Steve Cohen, said passengers drawn to low airfares are then "bombarded with a rash of airline fees that can drastically increase the overall cost of flying." <br/>