Air India is scheduled to take delivery in late May or early June of the first of 27 Boeing 787s it has on order, followed about a month later by receipt of the first 787 to roll off a new assembly line in South Carolina. But who will fly the new jets when they arrive?

The Indian government expects defense offset contracts to rise sharply in the next few years, given several megadeals in the pipeline.

As the strike entered its ninth day, the government admitted that the 2007 merger of Air India with Indian Airlines is faltering.