According to civil aviation minister Sharma's statement in Parliament on March 15, the airline is expected to make an operating profit of about Rs8 crore in the year 2016, which would be a first in the past nine years.
Fed up of constant negative reports in the media about Air India, the national airline's top boss Ashwani Lohani has said that those employees who leak such information should be identified as they are 'unfaithful' to their own organisation. He further asked for such employees to be counselled.
“It is necessary that such elements are identified and suitably counselled to work in the interests of the airline,” Lohani said in an internal communication circulated amongst all the employees of the airline.
Lohani — who is Air India's chairman cum managing director (CMD) and is being touted as the man who'll turn the airline's fortunes around — also said that though the airline has managed to meet basic operational costs, a gap of almost Rs4,000 crore per annum towards servicing the debt remains to be covered. “Unless we are able to do that, our survival would always remain at stake,” emphasised Lohani.
According to civil aviation minister Sharma's statement in Parliament on March 15, the airline is expected to make an operating profit of about Rs8 crore in the year 2016, which would be a first in the past nine years.
Hinting at the aggressive expansion plans of the airline and to take on the rivals in the competitive aviation industry, Lohani added that the management is inducting more aircraft in the fleet. Besides the six Boeing 787 Dreamliners and three Boeing 777s that are expected to be inducted soon; the airline has ordered for 14 A320 aircraft on lease and will shortly be ordering 15 more. At least 13 ATRs and six 737s are also in the pipeline for subsidiary companies of Air India. “Simultaneously, we are also going ahead with recruiting the required staff, including the pilots and cabin crew,” the letter further adds.
Air India has a debt burden of over Rs40,000 crore and is surviving on a bailout package approved in 2012. The previous government had approved a turnaround plan for the airline with funding of Rs30,000 crore spread over years, subject to certain conditions.
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