The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday stated that it did not find any major concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 fleet, adding that aircraft and associated maintenance systems were meeting the safety standards.
The revelation was made in a statement released by the civil aviation safety watchdog following a high-level meeting chaired by DG Fazi Ahmed Kidwai with top executives of Air India and Air India Express. These included Air India MD and CEO Campbell Wilson, Director of Flight Operations Captain Pankul Mathur, and Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh.
"As of 1500 hrs on 17 June 2025, a total of 24 aircraft have successfully completed the required check. An additional 2 aircraft are planned for completion today, with 1 more scheduled for tomorrow. The remaining 6 aircraft include 2 aircraft, which are presently AOG at Delhi," read the statement.
This come less than a week after London-bound AI 171, which was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, crashed immediately after taking off from Sardar Vallabhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. At least 270 people died in the crash, including people aboard the flight and several others on the ground.
The DGCA also raised concerns about maintenance-related issues in Air India fleet, advising the airline to improve coordination across engineering, operations and ground-handling units. They were also told to make enough spares available to cut passenger delays.
With regard to the airspace restrictions over Iranian airspace that caused flight diversions, delays, and cancellations, DGCA directed the operators communicate with passengers and crew on time and look for alternate routing strategies.
DGCA urged the airlines to implement "a more systematic and real-time defect reporting mechanism" so that the operational and safety-critical departments get timely updates and thereby improve overall decision-making and reduce downstream disruptions. The regulator also reviewed recent operational data for Air India’s wide-body operations, with a focus on the Boeing 787 fleet.
DGCA said Air India has cancelled 66 flights to be operated with Boeing 787 between June 12 and June 17.
Among the Air India flights cancelled on Tuesday due to technical snags and aircraft unavailability included AI133 - Bengaluru to London, AI143 - Delhi to Paris, AI153 - Delhi to Vienna, AI159 - Ahmedabad to London, AI170 - London to Amritsar, AI179 - Mumbai to San Francisco and AI915 - Delhi to Dubai.