Air India puts up its last four jumbo jets for sale
These aircraft, which are Pratt & Whitney 4056-powered and were built between 1993 and 1996, are currently parked at Mumbai airport. Two of them are in a very good condition and were used by VVIPs until recently
Tata Group-owned Air India has appointed a UK-based company to sell off its four remaining Boeing 747-400 aircraft, commonly known as jumbo jets, which were deregistered this year.
These aircraft, which are Pratt & Whitney 4056-powered and were built between 1993 and 1996, are currently parked at Mumbai airport. Two of them are in a very good condition and were used by VVIPs until recently.
Skytech AIC made this announcement on Tuesday through a press release put up on its website.
The company’s managing director Julian Balaam said, “We have indeed been appointed by Air India to market the four Boeing 747-400 aircraft for sale. We are a respected and highly experienced aircraft marketing organisation that counts among its clients Singapore Airlines Group, Kuwait Airways, Air Greenland, airBaltic and TUI Group, and we are very pleased to add Air India to that list.’’
An Air India spokesperson said the 747s were the flagship in the fleet, and they were sad to let them go. “At the same time, we are evaluating and reviewing our existing fleet to make it future-ready. We look forward to bringing in latest generation, more fuel-efficient, and more environment-friendly aircraft to power Air India’s future aspirations and growth plans. We are sure that many passengers will join Air India in bidding an emotional farewell to the queen of the skies.”
A senior airline official said these aircraft had very high fuel consumption. “They are occupying space at the airport, and will have to be disposed of.”
Aviation enthusiast Mihir Bhagvati, who is also the president of Bombay Flying Club, said this is not only the retirement of the mammoth machine, but it is the end of an era marking the exit of quad jets (ones with four engines) and induction of twin-engine aircraft to fly over the Altantic and Pacific oceans.
“My father Deepak Bhagvati was a senior engineer with Air India and had worked on this aircraft [Boeing 747-400]. He had also converted some of them from civil use to VVIP use, facilitating the PM’s tours to foreign countries. I have fond memories of travelling in these aircraft with classic Air India livery which was instantly recognised by the people across the world,” he said.
These 747s were the fastest commercial aircraft in use, Bhagavti said. “Now we have gone to slower and economical aircraft which are not technologically advanced. Most of my students who have flown 747s love the machine for its performance and stability without the use of computers.”
In 1971, Air India had 31 Boeing 747s from three variants – 747-200, 747-300 and 747-400. The first Boeing 747 had 16 first class seats and 40 business class seats.
Debasish Chakraverty, another aviation enthusiast, said it is heartbreaking that after serving the nation for over half a century, there will be no Air India Boeing 747s left in the country.
“My father was an Air India Boeing 747 captain, who flew the 747-200 and 747-300 variants for our then national airline. It is a journey that began in April 1971 with the arrival of the first Boeing 747, Emperor Ashoka, at Santa Cruz airport,” he said.
This was an airplane that he grew up in, and around, Chakraverty claimed. “It would have been wonderful if Air India or the ministry of civil aviation had preserved one of the 747s after their retirement, for public display, like British Airways, Qantas, and South African Airways have. We are about to lose the tangible element of what was arguably the greatest chapter in Indian aviation history, forever.”
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