Delivery of Dreamliner to AI likely in Dec

Thedelivery of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Air India is understood to have beenfurther pushed by two months to December this year.

The ailing national carrier, which has been one of the firstcustomers of this fuel-efficient plane, having placed orders for 27 of them wayback in 2006, plans to fly them on medium-haul international routes.

Read: Boeing Dreamliner: Worth the wait

Singaporeis likely to be the first foreign destination on which Air India plans tooperate two of these Boeing-787s, which it expects to be delivered thiscalendar year itself, airline sources said.

Besides Singapore,they said the other routes could be Hong Kong, Dubai,Osaka, Jakartaand Frankfurt.

While the deliveries were earlier scheduled to begin fromOctober this year, after being delayed by over two years, the sources said nowthe first delivery was only likely in December. The launch customer of theDreamliners is Japan'sAll Nippon Airways.

The prime reason for this delay is that Air India now wantsthe aircraft to be fully certified by the Federal Aviation Authority in the USbefore being delivered to it.