Flying-Tiger From Germany, joined Aug 1999, 4111 posts, RR: 39 Reply 1, posted (11 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 1708 times:
AS far as I remember the 4-wheel main gear was ordered because with this the A320-200 is allowed to operate out of airports with bad runways, the four wheels distribute the weight in a better way then the two wheel gear does.
Mjzair From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 392 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (11 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 11 hours ago) and read 1702 times:
It was an option that was made available by Airbus... Indian was the only airline that bit.... I do not think that Airbus offers that option anymore (haven't for a while).
I beleive the option was unpopular because of the added weight.
Also, after an Indian A320 crashed, Indian grounded the whole fleet, and wanted to phase out the A320 altogether, but because of the "uncommanality" there were no takers...
Indianguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (11 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 1663 times:
MjzAir: a little clarification here.
While the A320's WERE grounded after the inaugaral flight BOM-BLR crashed, it was a political decision pending completion of an enquiry. There was NO PLAN to phase out the A320's at any time.
The grounding happened because the then PM, Rajiv Gandhi (ex-737 driver for IC) had plumped majorly for the A320 which resulted in the 320 being selected over the competing 752 offered by Boeing.
After the enquiry was completed, the A320's returned to the air.
Setjet From United States of America, joined Mar 2002, 1088 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (11 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 1651 times:
Are there any dirt-runways in India that the A320 made scheduled flights to?
About ten years ago I saw an Air Namibia 747SP landing at the sand (!!!) strip of Walvis Bay! What a sight...after that I guess they had to repaint the aircraft!
Airindia From United Arab Emirates, joined Jan 2001, 1546 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (11 years 2 months 1 week 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 1645 times:
hey monarch,
thats an interesting find. Actually indian airlines is the only airline in the world to use double bogie wheels in the a320s. The reason being the rough runwats available at the non international airpots. Although the tarmac at the Delhi,mumbai etc are great the ones at say lesser known venues like nagpur etc are bad.
PS: The latest a320s leased by ia have single wheels though. They ply on Delhi-Mumbai routes only.
Indianguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (11 years 2 months 1 week 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 1603 times:
PS: The latest a320s leased by ia have single wheels though. They ply on Delhi-Mumbai routes only
Actually Guru, the A320's are the workhorse of the IC fleet, and fly to almost 70 destinations in India (almost all IC destinations except Kulu, Dharamshala and Agatti).
Its just that the runways surfaces at the 120 airports under AAI have been vastly improved which made the double-bogie virtually redundant. Unless IC starts flying to Nanded ofcourse!
N79969 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (11 years 2 months 1 week 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1584 times:
Actually, I heard that IC really wanted B757 as did Jet Airways but for various bureaucratic reasons, the government blocked the deal. The B757 has lower per seat costs and higher capacity. I think both of those carriers would have been better off with the B757.
Indianguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 9, posted (11 years 2 months 1 week 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 1562 times:
It is true that a section of IC officials wanted the 757. But there were doubts that the 757 was too big to handle the routes planned for the aircraft. Indeed even the smaller A320 is too big for some of these routes. And IC has historically had a single aircraft type to operate most routes, (Caravelles(60's), 737's(70/80's) and now A320's.
In any case, once pilot PM Rajiv Gandhi fell for the A320 after a test flight at Toulouse, other officials quickly fell in line!
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