Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, the delivery of two VVIP aircraft including, Air India One for the Prime Minister, will be delayed.
According to officials, the manufacturer Boeing informed Indian authorities that the delivery of these two custom-made aircraft will be in September instead of the earlier promised delivery by July. Boeing will supply the custom-made B777 planes for VVIP travel to Air India.
In October last year, government officials had said that the delivery of these two planes, which are earmarked for VVIP travel only, would be done by July.
“There has been some delay, primarily because of Covid-19. The two planes are likely to be delivered by September,” the officials said on Monday.
The two B777 aircraft worth Rs 810 crore will be operated by pilots of the Indian Air Force and not of Air India.
However, the new wide-body planes will be maintained by the Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL), which is a subsidiary of the Indian national carrier, the officials said. Currently, the Prime minister, the President and the Vice President fly on Air India’s B747 planes, which have the call sign ‘Air India One’.
The new planes will be used for travel of the dignitaries only.
These two aircrafts were part of Air India’s commercial fleet for a few months in 2018 before they were sent back to Boeing for retrofitting them for VVIP travel.
The B777 planes will have state-of-the-art missile defence systems called Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) and Self-Protection Suites (SPS).
In February, the US agreed to sell the two defence systems to India at a cost of USD 190 million for these two aircrafts.