Air India board to review revival plan next week

Mumbai: Air India's revised turnaround plan for its revival is likely to be submitted before the national carrier's board for approval next week, said an Air India official directly in the know of the matter.
The plan, vetted and modified by consultancy firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (India), proposes focus on domestic routes as the best option to regain lost market share. The national carrier's domestic market share slipped to 15.8% in January from 17.1% in December last year. Deloitte, which was hired to vet the plan conceived by the Air India management in October last year, had earlier put forth four scenarios. The consultancy firm had left the choice of the suitable option to the airline's management.
"We did not want the options and the confusion associated with the scenarios presented by Deloitte. So it was best that we got one plan from them. There is 99% agreement on what has been presented to Deloitte by the Air India management after tweaking it," said a top Air India official, not wanting to be identified.
The turnaround plan, which is essentially a five-year business plan, has two parts involving financial turnaround of the airline using equity infusion from the government and operational business plan focusing on fleet size, the routes and ways to gain back the market share, said the Air India official.
For the financial turnaround, it has been accepted that Air India, which currently has a low equity base ( 945 crore), will need to almost double the money from the government that was agreed upon by the committee of secretaries last year. The amount was pegged at 10,000 crore then.
24/02/11 Manisha Singhal/Economic Times

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Categories: Air India Feb 2011