While of absolutely no consequence to passengers, this has to be one of the more unusual stories that an airline executive has shared with employees (thanks to Anand for flagging this)…
In this post:
Kolkata Airport tells Air India to dispose of a Boeing 737
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson shared an interesting story with employees in an internal post, about how the airline just sold a plane it forgot about. Specifically, this involves a 43-year-old Boeing 737-200 with the registration code VT-EHH, that the airline forgot about at Kolkata Airport (CCU).
Here’s how Wilson describes what happened:
Though disposal of an old aircraft is not unusual, this one is – for it’s an aircraft that we didn’t even know we owned until recently!
Many years before privatisation, this aircraft had been decommissioned in order to operate for India Post and was omitted from many documents.
Over time, it was lost from memory and only came to light when our friends at Kolkata Airport informed us of its presence in a (very) remote parking bay and asked us to remove it! After verifying that it was indeed ours, we’ve now done so – and in so doing removed another old cobweb from our closet!
What’s the story of this 43-year-old Boeing 737-200?
This particular Boeing 737-200 was delivered in 1982, and it has quite the history. Initially it flew as a passenger jet for for Indian Airlines, before being leased to Alliance Air in 1998. The plane flew there for nearly a decade, before being transfered back to Indian Airlines in 2007, at which point it was converted into a freighter aircraft.
In 2007, Indian Airlines was merged into Air India, which is the point at which the plane officially joined Air India’s fleet. At the time, the plane flew for Air India Cargo, operating flights on behalf of Indian Post. It operated there for around five years, until 2012, at which point it was parked at Kolkata Airport.
Somehow as time went on, the airline just forgot it owned this plane, and it was “ignored” for 13 years. Like, shouldn’t there be some cost to having a plane parked there, even if it’s in grass off a taxiway? I just don’t get how that’s something that’s addressed 13 years later… why did the airport suddenly decide that it cares now?
I’m also curious how exactly Air India “sold” this plane. I assume it’s being sold for next to nothing, for scrap materials, or to turn into a cafe, or something, right?
Bottom line
Air India has just sold a Boeing 737, which has been parked at Kolkata Airport since 2012. The plane only briefly operated for Air India Cargo on behalf of Indian Post. Somehow as time went on and the airline was privatized, it lost track of owning the plane. The airport finally decided it wanted the airplane disposed of, which is how this all came up.
This is kind of a wild story, but I guess airlines have a lot to keep track of. For that matter, American once lost slots at JFK because it forgot it had them, so I guess none of this is so wild…
What do you make of this story of the forgotten Air India 737?
India and Aircraft!
Nuff Said
This reminds me of the fabled Miami International Airport “Corrosion Corner.” Years ago before the old EAL T-Hangers were torn down there was a ramp area where DC-8’s, 707’s and other older aircraft would be parked and forgotten. When MIA repurposed the area tearing down the T-Hangars and building new cargo facilities they had to figure out what to do with all those abandoned aircraft that racked up ramp parking fees. As a previous commenter...
This reminds me of the fabled Miami International Airport “Corrosion Corner.” Years ago before the old EAL T-Hangers were torn down there was a ramp area where DC-8’s, 707’s and other older aircraft would be parked and forgotten. When MIA repurposed the area tearing down the T-Hangars and building new cargo facilities they had to figure out what to do with all those abandoned aircraft that racked up ramp parking fees. As a previous commenter wrote some were sold but, many others had to be dismantled and hauled away.
Just search MIA Airport Corrosion Corner to read more.
I suppose the stench of urine is all gone.
Has any "Good " News come out of India lately?
Whilst AI was a nationalized airline a lot of items were bought such as expensive apartments, art etc that were forgotten and keepers became owners
For an understanding of this, and India, you can Google the article "India, it's worse than you think."
The writer lost me when he said India is a sinking ship and getting worse. Having traveled to India for 40 years, most things are better now and improving marginally every year. For instance, travel is a lot easier and infrastructure has been upgraded. Still a long way to go but I don´t share in the pessism. It is currently the fastest growing major economy.
I wonder how much they sold it for and who bought it ?
As a frequent flier from CCU, I had always wondered why a random Air India B737-200 was parked in the grass. The taxiway beside it isn't actually used at all as all functioning parts of the airport (hangars, terminals etc.) sit on the other side of the runway & no plane ever goes to that side of the runway these days.
I had thought that it maybe had an incident and veered off the...
As a frequent flier from CCU, I had always wondered why a random Air India B737-200 was parked in the grass. The taxiway beside it isn't actually used at all as all functioning parts of the airport (hangars, terminals etc.) sit on the other side of the runway & no plane ever goes to that side of the runway these days.
I had thought that it maybe had an incident and veered off the runway & nobody bothered to remove it after that but now I am very happy to know the real reason.
Nice job Ben. It's still super funny to make fun of Air India.
Tons of western airlines "lose" aircraft and basically trash them in remote areas all the time. But those dumb smelly Indians sure are idiots!!
@ Jeff -- I'm sorry, but that's completely unfair. This is the first time I've heard of an airline "losing" a plane in this way. I would've written of this story regardless of what the airline was. I even linked in this post to a story about how American "lost" a slot pair at JFK, due to forgetting about it. Please don't make this something it's not.
Bigot.
"Tons of western airlines "lose" aircraft"
Cool, what are some examples?
Given the number of 732s still in active service, any remaining non-rusted parts might be worth something.
Exactly what I was thinking. Nolinor was probably who bought it.
Did it magically dissappear to Iran then a non functioning look alike magically returned ;)
So I guess the guy cutting the grass found it and questions started there?