Air India unlikely to take B777s from Jet Airways

State-run Air India has decided not to pursue its plan to take B777s from grounded Jet Airways as it has found it commercially unviable given their huge maintenance requirement.

Air India had shown keen interest to take 5 wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft of Jet Airways on dry/wet lease and initiated talks with the crisis-hit airline`s lead lender SBI. Image source: Reuters

State-run Air India has decided not to pursue its plan to take B777s from grounded Jet Airways as it has found it commercially unviable given their huge maintenance requirement. "The engineering unit has done the work around the B777s and found no merit in taking them," said an airline executive. A few weeks back, Air India had shown keen interest to take 5 wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft of Jet Airways on dry/wet lease and initiated talks with the crisis-hit airline`s lead lender SBI.

Air India Chairman Ashwani Lohani had discussed the proposal with SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar.

But now that Air India has changed its decision, SBI seems to have a plan B for the grounded long-haul planes. An internal Jet Airways mail has revealed that one of the B777 jets is scheduled for maintenance ferry to Hong Kong on May 10.

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