New Delhi: Air India intends to have its carriers put in more flying hours as part of the ailing carrier’s revised turnaround strategy.
Civil aviation officials said the national carrier’s revival plan had to be reworked because its financial position was worse than previously envisaged.
The carrier has liabilities worth Rs 67,520 crore, of which Rs 21,200 crore is working capital loan, Rs 22,000 crore is long-term loan on fleet acquisition, Rs 4,600 crore are vendor dues and Rs 20,320 crore is accumulated loss. The turnaround plan will also focus on the maximum utilisation of other resources and cut down on unnecessary purchases.
“We have a good fleet of aircraft. It is just that they are underutilised. In the turnaround plan, we will ensure that every aircraft, be it a wide-bodied or an ATR, are utilised properly and to their optimum efficiency,” said a senior civil aviation ministry official.
According to ministry officials, some of the routes of Air India are shorter and, hence, the number of flying hours were less. The average daily flying hours of the A-310 and the A-320 are 6.4 hours and 10.8 hours, respectively, compared with private carriers such as Jet Airways (12.20 hours), Kingfisher (10.45 hours), SpiceJet (12 hours), GoAir (13 hours) and IndiGo (11.40 hours).
22/08/11 Karan Choudhury/The Telegraph
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