The delivery of the first consignment of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Air India has been further delayed by two months. Earlier, the planes were to arrive in India by October, but now their delivery has been extended to December.

Air India's first Dreamliner flight will be on the Delhi-Singapore route, a senior airline official has revealed. Further flights are planned to connect the national capital with Honk Kong, Dubai, Jakarta and Frankfurt.

The airline plans to replace its fleet of Boeing 777 with Dreamliner aircrafts on most routes.

A senior official requesting anonymity disclosed that the AI has plans to lease out Boeing B777s and its replacement with B787s would save AI approx Rs 1,200 crores on fuel per year.

AI has demanded for a compensation of $840 million from Boeing for the delay in delivery of the Dreamliners which was scheduled for 2008.

Though Air India has not been paid any compensation till date it will offset some of the costs against purchases of spares or other equipment from the US firm, the official said.

AI had placed an order for 27 of these long-range, wide- body and fuel-efficient planes.These aircrafts are lighter in weight as they are built mainly of plastic composites instead of aluminum.