AAI grapples with 29 Idle Planes, engages P&W amidst SC woes

At present, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has 29 idle airplanes at its owned and managed airports. The AAI actively follows up with airlines to dispose of these idle aircraft, and a security deposit/bank guarantee of approximately Rs 7.3 billion is held against these assets, as mentioned by Minister Scindia. In response to a supplementary question in the Lok Sabha, Minister Scindia highlighted that 95% of the grounded aircraft in India are attributed to engine supplier P&W, which is experiencing supply chain issues. The government has been in direct communication with P&W to address the situation. Additionally, Minister Scindia mentioned that Indian carriers are expanding their fleets with the induction of more aircraft. In a separate written reply, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh stated that the AAI is implementing big data-based security appliance systems that leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to predict and analyse cyber threats for enhanced protection against cyber-attacks.