PM’s VVIP aircraft arrival delayed

New Delhi: The arrival of two custom-made Boeing 777 VVIP aircraft, with the highest security measures to prevent air attacks, for use by PM Modi and other two top dignitaries — President Ram Nath Kovid and Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu — has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Boeing has just informed the government it would be able to supply them only by September and not in July as agreed. The two Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft would replace the nearly 25-year-old Boeing 747 used by Air India to ferry the PM and other VVIPs. Instead of the AI continuing to fly the PM and other VVIPs, the Indian Air Force pilots will be manning the new aircraft. The new wide-body planes will, howe­ver, be maintained by the Air India’s Engineering Ser­v­i­ces Limited, an AI subsidiary.