Carry passengers to London by PM's aircraft

The Prime Minister's two Jumbo aircraft (Boeing 747-400) will be used to transport to London passengers stranded in India due to the closure of Heathrow and numerous other airports the past several days because of the volcanic ash clouding the European airspace. This is a particular gesture by Air India to its passengers.

On April 23, passengers travelling from Mumbai to London with Air India will be flying the aircraft that was used by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to meet the US President, Mr Barack Obama, earlier this month. Security considerations need that two aircraft be prepared for a VVIP flight — one which is used to transport the notable and the other as a stand-by.

When the Prime Minister or other VVIPs use this aircraft, it has a special field with a bedroom and a work-place, a first class section for the officials, and a small business class section for other travelers who usually number less than 100.

Official sources told Business Line that the state owned airline is working to reconvert the Boeing 747-400 aircraft, christened Air India-1 for VVIP travel, to usual passenger aircraft capable of carrying 423 passengers in first, business and economy classes.

British Airways announced that all its operations from India are back to normal, while Virgin Atlantic Airways publicized it will restart India operations from Thursday.

On Wednesday, Eurocontrol said it anticipated about 21,000, or about 75 per cent of total, flights to cross the European airspace.