As the national carrier is being put on sale in the matter of a few months, the government is also taking it in its hands to make sure that the carrier appears attractive to the buyers. To do this, Air India is trying to cut down its expenses and adding to its balance sheets. One of such attempts has been the move towards a different domestic ticket booking system which would allow Air India to save around Rs 519 crore in 2020. Another step in this direction has been the introduction of a bigger flight on the London-Mumbai route and the putting of a Dreamliner on the Delhi-Washington route which will bring in Rs 100 crore in addition for the airline in the coming FY.
Air India Launches New Routes
With the launch of new destinations and routes, the carrier expects to add another Rs 120 crore to its balance sheets. Air India’s Finance Director, Vinod Hejmadi said, “These initiatives are set to add to our balance sheet and we expect our numbers to improve further with launch new flights to London from Mumbai and upgrade of equipment to flights to London from Delhi.” Some of the new routes launched by Air India include major destinations like Nairobi, Dubai, Kuwait, Toronto, Standsted.
Carrier Puts 9 Planes in Operation
Air India in total had 9 long-haul aircrafts in its fleet which were on ground in addition to the 12 narrow body aircraft which are mainly used to domestic purposes. While Air India has put the 9 wide-body aircraft to use on these new flights including the Boeing 777, 787 and 747, the rest of the 12 aircraft remain on ground only as Air India does not have finances to fly these planes. As we noted above, Air India’s decision to move to a new Global Distribution System (GDS) which is a new ticketing system from Travelport is going to save the airline around Rs 500 crore. It is also worth noting that the government plans to sell 100% of its stake in Air India in the coming months.
