As Air India remains on the verge of letting go of the last B77L in its fleet, it is a perfect time to see the history of B777-200 / 200LR with Air India over the last two decades. In January 2006, government owned Air India announced an order for 68 Boeing aircraft comprising 8 B777-200LR, 15 B777-300ER, 27 787-8 Dreamliners and 18 B737-800s. The deliveries started in July 2007, though Air India was already operating the B777-200 which were ex-United Airlines. The airline operated four of these (AIK, AIJ, AIL, AIR) at a time when it had severe fleet crunch and involved operating wet-leased aircraft as well. These four eventually left the fleet by early 2011.
Air India’s 777-200LR
Air India received its first “line-fit” B777-200LR (B77L) in July 2007, when VT-ALA and VT-ALC joined the fleet. It was soon joined by VT-ALB and VT-ALD by the end of 2007. This time coincided with the spike in oil prices leading to a blood bath in the market and expansion of Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways across seven seas leading to pressure on Air India for its expansion. The oil shock of 2008 and subprime crisis did not help in any way with Air India inducting four more B777-200LR until August 2009.
As Air India struggled with routes which could be worthy of the LR, terming them gas guzzlers; Etihad was expanding and looking for planes which led to Air India selling five of those to Etihad in 2014. In many ways, it helped Etihad expand into India with a network to the west powered by former Air India planes and India network powered by Jet Airways in which it invested in 2013.
Subsequently, Air India was left with only three B777-200LRs in its fleet, VT-ALF, VT-ALG, and VT-ALH. These three were used extensively to launch and operate flights to San Francisco and complimented the B77Ws of Air India to support its large North America network.
Air India was privatised in the middle of the pandemic with the Tata group being the winner and the historic event being termed as home coming since Air India was started by JRD Tata in 1932 and subsequently nationalised in 1953. As the new owners moved quickly to add capacity and work towards bettering the battered aircraft, it faced unprecedented challenges in the form of supply chain breakages and production issues, along with lack of slots for refurbishment at MRO. The airline took five B777-200LRs which were parked in long term storage by Delta Air Lines with the interiors being better than the legacy Air India planes along with those being three class aircraft.
This helped the airline expand operations to San Francisco with flights from Mumbai and Bengaluru, in addition to Delhi.
Bad timing
As part of the refurbishment plans, the airline planned retirement of the legacy 77Ls starting second half of 2025, followed by the return of ex- Delta aircraft. This was possibly on the premise that “line-fit” planes from the mega order placed in 2023 would be available for replacement. The new planes include the 787-9, first of which landed recently and the A350-1000, one of which is yet to reach India, though delivered to the airline in December last year. This was not the only bad timing part, there was one more.
With the deadly terrorist attack at Pahalgam and Operation Sindoor, the Pakistani airspace has been closed for Indian carriers starting at the end of April 2025. The timing of the exit of the LRs of Air India was such that it nearly overlapped with the airspace closure. With a hub in Delhi, the largest market in India; Air India is now forced to operate one-stop, most of its flights to North America.
Network Thoughts
The 77L has been termed as a gas guzzler and what not, but it remains a fact that the 77L helped Air India add capacity and make the most of the opportunity available.The interesting part is the price of oil. In July 2007 when the first LR entered Air India, the price of oil was $70.47 per barrel, it was bordering $100 per barrel in early 2014 when a bunch of planes were sold to Etihad. In January 2022, when Air India saw a change of ownership, oil stood at $96 per barrel, while this month it stands at $58 per barrel.
Will the A350s allow Air India to fly non-stop to SFO? News reports had indicated that Air India was about to launch flights to Boston, Dallas, Seattle and Los Angeles. Today, Air India has far fewer flights to the United States than what it had at its peak. The new aircraft joining the fleet could change that soon.
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