Air India to lease 3 B772's from United Airlines

[Sabena_690]

Those are the details:

x N205UA will be Dec 2004 delivery as VT-AII and will go into service on LHR routes

x N789UA and N790UA will be mid-Jan 2005 deliveries and one will be used for FRA/ORD flights effective February

x The displaced 744s will be reallocated to FRA/LAX from March.

x The second 777 will launch FRA/SFO in mid-April.

Info comes from airliners.net. The poster of the info is known as a guy who is very obsessed with B777's, but his B777-info is mostly reliable, so I expect the above information to be correct.

Frederic

[Jense]

Thanks for the good news Frederic... nice to see those great machines climbing up in the sky again 8)

N205UA is currently still in storage in Goodyear / Phoenix - AZ.
N790UA is currently still in storage in Goodyear / Phoenix - AZ.
N789UA is currently back in use after storage in Goodyear / Phoenix - AZ.

Mentioned on JP.Net for N205UA: Air India leases this bird just 15 days after the photo was taken. (pic http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=363680 )

The poster of the info is known as a guy who is very obsessed with B777's

Just as I am

greettzzz

[Avro]

Thanks for this nice piece of info Fred. It's indeed great to see some B777's leaving the desert again, and the T7 will certainly be a nice new addition to AI's current (older) fleet.

Is AI planning to take more B777's and for how long should they lease those 3 B777's of United ?

I'm really looking forward to see the very old colours scheme of AI on those birds



Chris

[Robin_Bamps]

This one was confirmed by Skyliner Aviation :

Boeing 777-222 c/n 28714/205 VT-AII Air India
for delivery dec04, ex GYR-storage ex N205UA

Regards, Robin Bamps.

[B744skipper]

I agree with the posters above that it's a good thing that those birds are back in the air again, and not collecting dust in the desert.

Are the birds used as a replacement of some sort or is it about adding additional capacity?
The Air India colour scheme will be looking interesting on the B777 for sure.

Btw, how many more B777's are in storage?

[Flying-Belgian]

Thx Fredje. 8)

I think we will see AI expanding more and more shortly.

The demand is VERY VERY high for those India/UK/US sectors. India is beside China the world's fastest growing country/economy.

With rumours of Jet Airways and bmi both starting UK-INDIA service, the news of the AI 777 wasn't a big surprise.

I'd be curious to know the leasing rates of those machines compared to the leasing of a brand new 777...

FB.