MUMBAI- Tata-owned Air India (AI), the fifth and final ex-Delta Air Lines (DL) Boeing 777, made its first commercial flight today (Sep 5, 2023).
The Indian full-service carrier took delivery of the ex-Delta 777-200LR almost three months ago. Further, Air India has named all the widebody fleet aircraft, and this one has Uday inscribed on it.
Air India 777 First flight
Today, Air India flight AI665 was operated using Boeing 777-200LR registered as VT-AEI. The flight took off from Delhi Airport (DEL) at around 8:15 AM local time.
After being airborne for almost two hours, it made a smooth landing at Mumbai Airport (BOM) at around 10:01 AM local time.
Airframe Details
Now let us see the timeline of this aircraft, which has been transferred to multiple operators before joining AI.
Boeing delivered this aircraft to Delta back in 2009. Delta operated the aircraft for around 12 years.
Later, US Mammoth Freighters took the aircraft in April 2021. It operated aircraft for a couple of years.
Then Jetran took the aircraft in March 2023; later, DHL got it in April 2023 on lease. But it hardly operated the aircraft for three months.
Air India took the aircraft in June 2023 on lease. It sent the aircraft to Singapore for rework, painting, and some minor adjustments. After completing this work, the aircraft made a ferry flight to Delhi on August 15, 2023; today, on Sep 5, 2023, it made its first commercial flight.
The aircraft will be utilized to increase the capacity of its North American flight network.
Apart from this, Air India has also leased six ex-Etihad (EY) Boeing 777-300ERs and three ex-Singapore Airlines (SQ) 777-30ERs to enhance its capacity.
Other ex-Delta Aircraft
Now let us see other ex-delta aircraft details that are now part of the Air India fleet.
1) VT-AEF, Delivered in November 2022 and has the name VIHAAN
2) VT-AEG was delivered in Same Nov 2022, named PRABHAT
3) VT-AEH was delivered on Jan 2023, named ALOK
4) VT-AEE, Delivered in Feb 2023, and is named AVIJIT
Those 5 Boeing aircraft are old B777-200 LRs of Delta Airlines. These 200LRs are very interesting aircraft, and there are only 61 ever built by Boeing company.
The aircraft has premium economy class along with 3 other standard classes. The Ex-Delta aircraft has been modified and has one of the best Cabin retrofits.
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