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Air India has admitted that it lost track of the Boeing 737 for 13 years – until it was found in a remote parking bay at an airport last month.
boeing 737-200 cargo aircraft were parked Kolkata When it was decommissioned at the airport in 2012, it then disappeared from the airline’s records.
In the years since, the airport authorities have continued to levy parking charges for aircraft and issue invoices to Air India.
But the airline disputed those invoices on the grounds that it had no record of the aircraft, registered as VT-EHH, being parked there.
This situation changed only when Kolkata Airport issued a formal request to Air India to remove the aircraft. The airline’s chief executive, Campbell Wilson, acknowledged the mistake in an internal message to staff, which has since been widely reported.
“While disposing of an old aircraft is not unusual, it is not unusual – because this is an aircraft we didn’t even know we owned until recently!” Mr. Wilson said.
“Over time, it disappeared from memory and only came to light when our friends at the Kolkata airport informed us of its presence in a (very) remote parking area and asked us to remove it! After verifying that it was indeed ours, we have now done so – and thus we have removed another old cobweb from our cupboard.”
Air India has said that the aircraft slipped from its books amid continuous restructuring. It started its life with Indian Airlines and was absorbed into Air India after the merger of the two carriers in 2007. The jet was later adapted for freight use and leased to India Post before being withdrawn from service.
Mr Wilson has said the plane was “repeatedly excluded from internal records”, including during the airline’s privatization in 2022, meaning it never appeared on key transfer documents, according to the report tribune indiaAssets missing from the acquisition list can be easily forgotten, especially when they have stopped flying,
Aviation analysts say airlines are generally careful to avoid such situations, because grounded aircraft represent cost rather than value.
“Given the regulatory oversight, it’s hard to imagine an airline actually losing track of an aircraft,” said John Strickland, founder of JLS Consulting. telegraph, Another Indian newspaper. “Maintenance history and component serial numbers are generally very strictly controlled.”
The Boeing 737-200 is the first generation version of the model introduced in the late 1960s and has long been retired from passenger service. Industry estimates suggest that the resale value of the aircraft is negligible, although some components, including its Pratt & Whitney engine, may still be reused. It was the only retired Air India aircraft with its engines still intact.
Kolkata Airport eventually recovered approximately Rs 10 million (83,362) in accumulated parking charges, Air India confirmed that it has agreed to pay its dues. The aircraft was decommissioned on 14 November and taken by road to Bengaluru, where it would be reused for ground-based engineering training. The space it occupies will be used for one of two new hangars planned at the airport.
Airport officials say VT-EHH was the 14th decommissioned aircraft removed from the Kolkata airport in the last five years, pointing to wide enforcement gaps around abandoned aircraft and unresolved ownership disputes.