Air India, today, operated its first long haul flight to Frankfurt with the new Dreamliner Boeing 787 aircraft.
The flight AI 121 from Delhi to Frankfurt, Germany took off with Capt. Soman in Command and Capt Nikhil Dongre as co-pilot.
The airline received the first 787 Dreamliner from the US-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing on September 8, after a wait of four
years. So far, Air India has received three Dreamliners. The airline will take delivery of the fourth 787 on October 20 and another by the
end of this year, followed by seven more in 2013, five in 2014, six in 2015 and three in 2016.Lack of adequate manpower has forced the
national carrier to delay its plan for flights to Australia and other destinations.
Air India has deployed Dreamliners on domestic sector to familiarise the pilots with aircraft landings and takeoff procedures. The first
commercial service of Dreamliner started from September 19 between New Delhi and Chennai, followed by New Delhi-Bangalore sector.
Dreamliner has a two class configuration with 18 flat bed seats in the Executive Class and 238 seats in the Economy class, a total of 256
seats. The aircraft is equipped with the state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system in all classes. A USB port is provided in all
classes capable of connecting to Passenger Electronic Devices e.g. Digital Camera, Keyboard, MP3 Player, Mobile phone charging, etc.
Also, an overhead video Broadcast is provided on the 15.4 inch LCD monitors throughout the cabin.
