Newly appointed civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi plans to increase Air India’s West Asian flights and add more long routes to turn around the state-run carrier, which is facing the prospect of strikes and the exits of some senior executives.
Flights to West Asia account for one-fourth of total revenue and covers all cash costs for the airline, except for a few routes.
“My first priority is to bring flights to the Gulf back to profitability. We will add more flights to the Gulf. It makes more commercial sense to shift the operations base of Air India Express to Kochi as more Keralites are flying to Gulf,” Ravi said.
Air India Express, the carrier’s low-fare subsidiary, is stepping up hiring. It has been forced to cancel flights to West Asia because of crew shortages. The airline is currently in the midst of a Rs.10,000 crore government-backed rescue plan.
“I am not frightened by any recent developments in Air India and I don’t think these things will prevent the implementation of the turnaround plan for the airline. I am on the job and I am talking to everybody. I am sure that I can turn around the airline as I have no vested interests,” Ravi said on Saturday in an interview.
Earlier this month, the Air India board sacked Pawan Arora, chief operating officer of Air India Express. Air India’s chief training officer Stefan Sukumar submitted his resignation last week.
One of Air India’s independent directors, Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and managing director of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, last week stepped down from the board, citing conflict of interest.
28/02/11 P.R. Sanjai/Live Mint
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
0 comments:
Post a Comment