Custom-made B777 plane for VVIP travel to arrive in India on Thursday

A custom-me B777 aircraft, which will be used to fly president, vice president and prime minister, is going to arrive from US in India on Thursday, said government officials. plane was scheduled to be delivered by aircraft manufacturer Boeing to Air India during August but delivery was delayed due to technical reasons, officials ted.  Senior officials of national carrier h reached US during first half of August to receive plane from Boeing, officials said.

Air India One, which is call sign of aircraft, will land at Delhi airport from Texas at around 3 pm on Thursday, y stated.  Ar custom-me B777 plane for travel of VVIPs is likely to be received from Boeing during a later date, y ted. It was expected that delivery of se two planes, which are earmarked for VVIP travel only, would be done by July. However, due to COVID-19, ir delivery has been delayed by a few months.

During travel of VVIPs, two B777 aircraft will be operated by pilots of Indian Air Force (IAF) and t of Air India, an official said. Currently, president, vice president and prime minister, fly on Air India's B747 planes, which have call sign Air India One.

Air India pilots fly se B747 aircraft for dignitaries and Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) maintains m. When se B747 aircraft are t flying dignitaries, y are used by Indian national carrier for commercial operations. new planes will be used for travel of dignitaries only.

se two aircraft were part of Air India's commercial fleet for a few months in 2018 before y were sent back to Boeing for retrofitting m for VVIP travel. B777 planes will have state-of--art missile defence systems called Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) and Self-Protection Suites (SPS).

In February, US agreed to sell two defence systems to India at a cost of USD 190 million. Centre has alrey initiated process of divestment of its stake in Air India, which has a debt of over Rs 60,000 crore. However, process has been postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

(Im Credits: Twitter)

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