MUMBAI: It is a brand new aircraft. There are only 30-odd of its kind in the world as of now. It is all about passenger comfort as it has been made to fly on long-haul international routes. But in India, one can fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft with a domestic air ticket from next week onwards.
Air India's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner landed in Mumbai on Thursday. However, AI has not yet woken up to the idea of marketing the Dreamliner's first commercial flight.
From September 19, AI will operate its Delhi-Chennai-Delhi and Delhi-Bangalore-Delhi flights with its spanking new Dreamliner. "For passengers in India, it is a wonderful chance to experience the aircraft. No airlines would put a long-haul aircraft and that too a recently-launched one, like the Dreamliner, on domestic routes to operate on a two-hour or forty-minute flight," said an aviation analyst, requesting not to be quoted. "For frequent flyers and aviation enthusiasts, it's a great opportunity to earn some bragging rights," he added. Other airlines in the world that fly the Dreamliners, like All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, have put their B-787s on long-haul routes that connect Japan to the US.
However, Air India has not bothered to market this aircraft yet. On Thursday, the cheapest, tax inclusive, one-way fare for AI flights on the Delhi-Chennai route on September 19 and on dates after that was in the range of Rs 9,000. However, it is not possible to book a flight that will be operated by the Dreamliner. All the Delhi-Chennai and Delhi-Bangalore AI flights listed on the airlines' website and that of other travel portals were shown to be operated either by A320 or A321 aircraft. Though there is less than a week to go before Dreamliner operates its first commercial flight on these routes
, the airlines has not yet put out information about which particular flights will be operated by the B-787.
"They should have put out the word by now and uploaded the relevant information online so that passengers interested can book a seat on this aircraft," said a travel agent, requesting anonymity. "They can easily drive up the airfare if they market these flights well," he added.
Air India is scheduled to take deliveries of five more B-787s by the end of this year, seven in 2013, five in 2014, six in 2015 and three in 2016. All Nippon Airways was the first airline to operate the Dreamliner. The B-787 flew its first commercial long-haul flight on January 21 this year from Haneda to Frankfurt. Japan Airlines operates its Dreamliners on the Tokyo-Frankfurt route.
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