Govt unveils new plans for AI’s global operations

Jun 06, 2012 |

New Delhi

Tags:

boeingdreamliner-afp_3.jpg.crop_display.jpg

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Wednesday unveiled new plans for international operations of strike-hit Air India including starting of two new flights to Kuala Lumpur and London and resuming of operations to Hong Kong, Osaka and Seoul by August 1.

The Minister also announced that three Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft will be inducted by the end of June.

"For the initial six to eight weeks, the first aircraft will be used on domestic routes to enable trainees to practice landings and take-offs and the first long-haul flight of the aircraft will be in August between Mumbai and London and Australia operations will commence in August-September."

Singh told a press conference here. On the strike by a section of Air India pilots, he said as far as the government was concerned, it was over.

"If Air India pilots want to come back, they were welcome but there should be no pre-condition," Singh said.

He said the striking pilots have opposed the Dharmadhikari report on turnaround plans for the state-owned airline and if they do not accept it, 'then there is no point in their coming back'.

Asked about the fate of sacked pilots, he said that they have been 'terminated' and they will have to apply afresh, if they want to come back.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/158308" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-650ce553cd027dff90660bb9b4bfe1bd" value="form-650ce553cd027dff90660bb9b4bfe1bd" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80481968" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>