Boeing 777 as 'Air India One' for PM Modi, President Kovind

Guwahati: Air India One, the highly customised wide-bodied Boeing 777-300 ERs, has announced that it is meant exclusively for the Indian Prime Minister, President and the Vice-President, and is set to land in Delhi by early next week.

As per sources, the defence and security establishment said that while the first aircraft will land next week, the second will arrive by the end of this year.

The union government officials are also part of the team. They have already arrived in US to finish the formalities and bring the aircraft to India.

The delivery of these planes was initially expected in July but delayed due to coronavirus pandemic.

Indian Air Force pilots will be given the responsibility to fly these planes and not Air India.

As per reports, the planes will have state-of-art missile defence systems.

The missile system will be called Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) and Self-Protection Suites (SPS).

Currently, VVIPs travel long hours on Air India's Boeing 747 aircraft. The aircraft does not have the potential to fly more than 10 hours without refuelling.

But the new aircraft can fly over 17 hours continuously without refuelling.

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