The Hindu Business Line : IA to begin phase-out of Boeing 737-200 aircraft

The phased and eventual withdrawal of the Boeing 737-200 aircraft from the Alliance Air fleet does not mean the end of the long history that the Boeing aircraft has had of flying Indian passengers in the domestic skies.

A SIGNIFICANT chapter in the more than five-decade long existence of the state-owned carrier Indian Airlines (IA) will come to an end from the fourth quarter of this year, with the airline's 100 per cent subsidiary, Alliance Air (AA), planning to phase out five of the 11 Boeing 737-200 aircraft in the first phase.

The process of phasing out the Boeing aircraft is expected to begin during this year's winter schedule, which begins in October-November. The short- and medium-haul Boeing 737-200 aircraft, which was the work-horse of the airline during the 1970s and 1980s — with the first aircraft, called the Garuda, arriving on December 12, 1970 — has been a part and parcel of the airline's growth story.

As the clock ticks away for the withdrawal of the aircraft from the AA fleet, IA officials recall how the Boeing 737-200 aircraft was the one that took aircraft-flying not only to the metro cities but also to airports where it was considered unimaginable for commercial aircraft to operate.

The induction of the aircraft, apart from giving IA the opportunity of starting regular flights to stations like Silchar, Jaipur, Patna and Mangalore, to name just a few, also created global aviation history in the early 1980s, when the Boeing 737 made an inaugural successful landing at the highest airport (in altitude terms) in the world by touching down at Leh. Now, of course, the airline operates regular flights to the station.

The crowning glory for the Boeing aircraft in the IA fleet, probably, came in the early 1980s when the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, chartered the aircraft for an official visit to Europe.

But years of flying and the crash of an aircraft in Patna in July 2000 took its toll on the aircraft and passenger confidence in flying with AA.

For the record, the existing 11 Boeing 737-200 aircraft have flown more than 5,44,000 hours and made more than 6,27,000 landings with the maximum aircraft hours flown being clocked at more than 53,000 and the minimum aircraft hours at just over 47,000.

While IA, the Government and Indian regulatory authorities insist that there is nothing wrong with the aircraft, they point to the fact that there are several other issues which make the aircraft require more "ground time" thereby affecting viability of the operations.

The current fleet of Boeing aircraft operated by AA is about 23 years old with the airline acquiring the aircraft during 1980-82.

Probably keeping all this in mind, an Empowered Committee of the airline on April 7 this year gave its nod for a proposal to lease five Airbus A-319 aircraft to replace an identical number of Boeing 737-200 aircraft.

The three-member Empowered Committee includes the Financial Advisor and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Mr V. Subramanian and the IA Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Sunil Arora.

Incidentally, the Airbus A-319 aircraft is among the three versions of aircraft that the IA board had approved as part of the 43-aircraft, Rs 10,000-crore fleet expansion plan of the airline. Sources were categorical that the leasing of the Airbus A-319 aircraft will not affect the eventual purchase of aircraft, a proposal for which is pending with the Government.

The arrival of the leased Airbus A-319 aircraft, for which the Empowered Committee has given its nod, will also give a much-needed product upgrade to AA. The current Boeing aircraft operated by AA offer 119 seats in economy class while the 122-seater Airbus aircraft will offer seats both in economy and business classes.

So, soon, it will be time for IA and AA passengers to bid farewell to the Boeing 737-200 aircraft. Just as they did to the Vicker Viscount aircraft, the first turbo-prop to enter the services of IA (in 1957) and which made its last flight in 1976-77, or the Caravelle, which took Indian commercial aviation into the jet era but was retired from the airline fleet in 1979-80.

The same was the case with the 74 DC-3 Dakota aircraft which IA inherited after nationalisation in 1953, and which remained in service till 1973-74. Similarly, the three DC-4 Skymaster aeroplanes which joined the IA fleet in 1953, were phased out in 1967-68.

However, the phased and eventual withdrawal of the Boeing aircraft from the AA fleet does not mean the end of the long history that the Boeing aircraft has had of flying Indian passengers in the domestic skies.

For even as AA withdraws the Boeing 737 aircraft, another domestic airline, Jet Airways, last May became the first airline in South, West and South-East Asia to take delivery of the Boeing 737-900 aircraft.

Both Jet Airways and Air Sahara operate various versions of Boeing aircraft for their regular flights within and outside India.