Air India is getting ready to add its first Airbus A350 aircraft to its fleet next month, a first for an Indian airline and one that will enable it to take on the three big Gulf carriers and fly more Indian passengers non-stop on long-haul international routes thanks to its longer range and higher capacity.
The airline will get upto four Airbus A350s till March 2024, which form a part of the 470 aircraft order Air India placed with aerospace manufacturers Airbus and Boeing in February this year and includes 70 widebodies. The airline has already taken delivery of some A320s, A321 NEOs and Boeing 737 MAX8s from the order.
The airline has been training its pilots, cabin crew and engineering personnel around the world to welcome the first A350-900, which will also be the first aircraft in Air India’s new livery. However, as these aircraft were initially destined for Aeroflot before the Russia- Ukraine war resulted in a ban, they will not yet sport Air India’s new interiors which is expected to be seen only from August 2024 onwards
As many as six sets of pilots (six co-pilots and six commanders) have already completed their simulator training in Singapore, according to a senior executive at the airline. “All of them are trainers to enable Air India to carry out in-house training,” he added. Airbus is providing the airline simulator training slots in Singapore, Toulose and Miami. Air India will also get its own simulators for A350 which will be installed at its soon-to-be launched training academy so that all simulator training can take place in-house.
Each month two sets of pilots will undergo simulator training as each A 350 will need a total of 13 sets of pilots for ultra- long-haul flights. The training programme for Airbus A320 pilots being moved to A350 includes roughly 13 days of “Cross Crew Qualification” which has two ground sessions, a test, six simulator sessions and four additional ground training sessions on aspects such as low visibility, explained those in the know. Pilots from the airline’s Boeing fleet may also be moved to A350 but will require roughly 45 days of “full endorsement course”.
Training on aircraft will be imparted by Airbus instructors only after the aircraft begin to arrive in India next month.
The aircraft will however not be immediately deployed on ultra-long haul routes such as the US. It will first undergo DGCA evaluation for upto 20 days, following which it will fly domestically for some time for crew familiarisation purposes.
An initial lot of cabin crew trainers have also completed their training at Toulouse, France. These trainers will now train other cabin crew members. The practical drills for cabin crew would be carried out in Singapore using their “door trainer”, which is a sectional mock-up of the aircraft’s main entry and emergency exit doors. Air India has also ordered door trainers which will be delivered soon so all cabin crew training can take place in-house in India.
Three batches of engineers, each from Air India, Vistara and AIX Connect- the three Air India Group airlines- have successfully completed training sessions at the Airbus facility in Toulouse. Specialised courses on structure assessment and engine run-up have been completed, explained another Air India executive. Senior-level executives from the engineering department, along with engineers and technicians, have undergone A350 General Familiarisation course to ensure comprehensive knowledge about the aircraft.
Air India has also partnered with Singapore International Airline’s maintenance, repair and over-haul arm, SIA Engineering Company, to ensure its engineers get a hands-on experience of Airbus A 350’s day-to-day maintenance, aircraft turn-around inspections, and scheduled maintenance activities.
Airbus has also provided review meetings that offer insights into A350s technical intricacies, and future reviews are planned after the arrival of the aircraft to ensure ongoing support with technical issues.
