NEW DELHI (TIP): Air India is all set to earn its highest-ever passenger revenue — Rs 17,000 crore — this fiscal, bettering the previous high of Rs 15,500 crore registered in FY 14-15. The airline’s total revenue is expected to be Rs 21,500 crore this fiscal.
“While the revenues are up due to higher passenger loads, costs are down because of oil prices and softening of interest rates on working capital loans of Rs 22,000 crore by almost 1 percentage point. As a result, we are looking at halving our net loss to Rs 2,500 crore this fiscal from Rs 5,500 crore last fiscal,” said a senior AI official.
AI is now looking at new revenue streams to shore up its finances. It is now going to train Airbus A-320 pilots for other Indian carriers in India. At present, other airlines using the A-320 send their pilots abroad for type-rating (certificate that a pilot is trained on a particular type of aircraft). IndiGo — the biggest user of A-320 in India — sends its pilots to Kuala Lumpur for type-rating.