Air India today grounded all its six Boeing-787 Dreamliner planes after a global directive by US regulator, Federal Aviation Administration, FAA ,to stop operations of all the 50 such planes delivered so far to various airlines.Air India officials said they have grounded all the six planes with immediate effect following the FAA directive and the DGCA advisory.They said that FAA has directed the grounding of the entire Dreamliner fleet till such time as the aircraft
manufacturer Boeing demonstrate compliance of various
measures the American regulator has asked it to carry out.Airlines have been experiencing a glitch in its Dreamliner's liquid cooling system and electrical power system
However, theAir India officials maintained that its services will not be affected in any major way as flights to Paris and Frankurt operated by the Dreamliner will now be serviced by Boeing 777.While one of the six planes is always on a standby, three are used on the domestic sector and two on international including Paris and Frankfurt.Domestic services would be absorbed by the existing fleet of aircraft.
Yesterday, Japan had grounded 24 Dreamliner owned by two of its airlines– ANA (All Nippon Airways) and Japan Airlines.