Air India wants sell all of its Boeing 777-200LR aircraft

The recently privatized flag carrier of India has put out a tender to sell all of its Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, according to Live Mint. Interested parties have up to August 16th to submit their bids for these airframes.

Air India ordered all three aircraft from Boeing in December 2005 and has been operating them after delivery in June-August 2009, data from ch-aviation.com shows. Let’s investigate further.

Air India wants to sell all three of its Boeing 777-200LR airframes. These planes are registered as VT-ALF, ALG, and ALH, with MSNs 36305, 36306, and 36307, respectively. The planes are all similarly configured in a three-class layout with a total of 238 seats, comprising 195 in economy, 35 in business class, and eight first class seats.

According to data from ch-aviation.com, the values these aircraft at $32.24 million each, however, the actual value is likely to differ based on market trends and other specific information.

Air India seems to have taken full advantage of the longest flying aircraft in its fleet. Back in early 2021, the flag carrier began using the 200LR to fly between Bengaluru (BLR) and San Francisco (SFO), its longest route yet. The launch service became especially well-known since the airline flew it with an all-female cockpit crew for all of 17 hours.

The route was later dropped in May 2021 following the rise in COVID-19 cases in India. Currently, all three airframes are used to fly between Delhi (DEL) and San Francisco (SFO), in addition to occasional domestic hops.

Air India has a fleet of around 120 aircraft, excluding the four Boeing 747s recently taken off active service. The fleet comprises around 45 widebody aircraft like the Boeing 787 and 777 that are used to support the bulk of Air India’s international operations. The carrier operates two types of 777s: the 200LR and 300ER variants.

Air India’s new CEO has finally received government clearance to sit at the helm. However, the Tatas haven’t made a fleet decision so far. If speculation is to be believed, Air India could soon become the first Indian carrier to fly the Airbus A350 in Indian skies. Only time will tell. simplyflying.com