Japan allows Air India to fly Dreamliners Japan has finally allowed Air India to fly its Boeing 787 Dreamliner to the country, dropping its condition for a “safety talk” on Indian aviation standards, as per a TOI report by Saurabh Sinha. The national carrier had for many months been seeking nod to fly its B787 to Japan. A senior Air India official confirmed that it had got this permission. "We currently have eight B787s. While one of them is used for domestic flights, six are flying to overseas destinations and one is kept standby. We are getting the ninth Dreamliner. This plane will be deployed on the Japan route from the coming winter schedule," the official said. The airline will announce the dates for Dreamliner flight launch to Japan in coming days. Ever since the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had raised "significant safety concerns" over the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Japan did not allow Air India to fly the new plane to its skies and also sought information on the Boeing 777s the airline uses currently on the Tokyo route. “Japan wanted to have a safety talk with the DGCA before giving the nod to an Indian carrier for flying for any new type of aircraft there. However after doing an audit of the DGCA August, ICAO dropped its safety concerns for India. After that there was no point in having safety meetings with individual countries as ICAO represents all the countries. This would have been an endless process," said a senior official. Indian aviation authorities conveyed this stand in plain terms to their Japanese counterparts during an ICAO meet in Canada recently. Following this, Japan finally agreed to give Air India the nod to fly the Dreamliners.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 02:03:12 +0000