One-fourth of IA fleet grounded

New Delhi/Mumbai: Around 15-17 Indian Airlines aircraft, comprising one-fourth of its 74-aircraft fleet, have been grounded for over two months as spares are not available to repair the old engines of these Airbus A320s and A319s.
An ongoing backlog in production of GE-Snecma’s CFM-V2500 engine parts is one of the reasons behind the shortage of spares, according to an Indian Airlines spokesperson.
Some aircraft, however, had been sent abroad for maintenance, the company said. GE-Snecma could not be contacted for a response.Though Indian Airlines’ market share has fallen from 24% in April to nearly 21% now, the company said its operations had not been affected because of this. It claims 80% punctuality on flight schedules.
But an aviation industry expert said the company might have decided to junk the aircraft because maintenance and repairs did not take more than 15 days, certainly not two months.
01/07/06 Atreyee Dev Roy & Sagar Malviya/Financial Express

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline