Many Air India Dreamliners lying idle as airline faces staff crunch

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/>