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Air India set for 787 delivery

NEW DELHI/SEATTLE — Boeing said it expects to hand over its first 787 Dreamliner to Air India this week, ending months of waiting while several of the jets sat ready during talks over compensation for delivery delays.

A team of about 20 Air India pilots, flight attendants, engineers and operations personnel arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, to prepare to receive the plane, Boeing India president Dinesh Keskar said in an interview.

Air India may take delivery as early as August 28, according to an official with the state-owned carrier who asked not to be identified because the plan hasn’t been announced. The airline, which has 27 Dreamliners on order, received government permission on August 3 to pay for its initial 787 after Chicago-based Boeing agreed to compensation. “Friday is already over in India, Monday is a bank holiday in London, and that’s where the money comes from, so Tuesday would be the earliest,” Keskar said of the first delivery.

Air India’s first two Dreamliners are being funded by a $195 million loan from Standard Chartered. Three of the jets are ready and parked at Boeing’s South Carolina factory, and a fourth was preparing for its maiden flight when its General Electric engine blew out during a July 28 taxi test. The 787 was more than three years behind schedule when it entered service in late 2011. While Air India had asked for $840 million in compensation for delays to its order, India’s government didn’t give a figure this month when it approved an agreement between Boeing and the airline. Boeing has declined to give any financial specifics.

Last month’s engine failure remains under investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board, and Boeing and Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE have said the defect was limited to the power plant on that jet. Keskar declined to discuss the engine incident.

Air India ordered the 787 in 2005 and was initially due to start receiving the planes in 2008. Boeing struggled with new materials and manufacturing processes for the world’s first jetliner made from composite materials.