TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ The arrival of the VVIP aircraft from the United States, which will be used to fly the President, Vice President and the prime minister, has been delayed due to technical reasons, senior Air India officials said on Tuesday.
The plane was scheduled to arrive in India during the first half of this week, the officials noted. Senior officials of the national carrier reached the US earlier this month to receive the plane from aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the officials said.
Another custom-made B777 plane for the travel of VVIPs is likely to be received from Boeing in September, they noted. It was expected that the delivery of these two planes, which are earmarked for VVIP travel only, would be done by July.
However, due to COVID-19, their delivery has been delayed by a few weeks. During the travel of the VVIPs, the two B777 aircraft will be operated by pilots of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and not of Air India, an official said.
