Hearing that Air India is still losing money is hardly surprising news. Hearing that the Dreamliner – part of the company’s plan to turn around its operations and finances – is a money-loser for the carrier is a slightly different story. But that’s the headline out of the subcontinent this week.
Read More: Air India incurs losses on all routes operated by Boeing 787 Dreamliners, revival under cloud
So, is the Dreamliner failing Air India or the other way around? Based on the data shared it very much seems to be the latter. The data suggests that the 787 is meeting its expected costs numbers for the beleaguered carrier but that it has not yet met the load expectations to make the routes profitable. The Delhi-Moscow route is reported to be less than half full on average (47% LF). Specific numbers for other routes were not shared but the report suggests that the company expected 80% load factors when building the business plans around the new fleet and destinations. That is a spectacularly optimistic number given general industry averages.
The news of the losses comes as the carrier took delivery of its 20th 787 last week making it one of the larger operators of the type globally.
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