Air India's finances saw some significant changes in the last financial year, with revenues increasing by more than 60%, but losses multiplying as well. The carrier's new owners are trying hard to bring it back to profitability after years of neglect as a state carrier and are bringing about several changes in the way things work at the airline.

64% increase in revenue

Air India registered a 64% growth in revenue in the last fiscal year. The airline's latest regulatory filings show that it posted net revenue of around $2.5 billion for the financial year ending on March 31st, 2022. In FY 21, the airline posted revenue of $1.5 billion.

In India, the financial year starts on April 1st and concludes on March 31st of the following year.

Air India Boeing 777
The airline will induct 30 aircraft soon, of which 5 will be Boeing 777-200LRs. Photo: Kentaro Lemoto via Wikimedia Commons

Air India said that it brought about several changes last year to minimize the impact of the COVID pandemic, such as salary/allowance cuts across the board, suspension of all post-retirement contractual engagements, the introduction of the concept of a shorter working week, and encouraging employees to use its leave without pay scheme.

In its filings, accessed by AltInfo, the company stated,

“The group also engaged its aircraft lessors in negotiations to secure cuts in lease payments, exercised strict control over vendor payments to ensure best possible use of funds.”

Losses grew, too

However, the airline still awaits a good year as its losses grew by a third from $883 million in FY 21 to 1.2 billion in the last fiscal, suggesting that significant work is still required for the company to get back in proper health.

But changes are underway. Air India improved its load factor to 73.5% and saw an 80% improvement in the number of passengers carried to 11.5 million.

Air India Boeing 787
Photo: Akshay Mantri

While the Tatas took over the control of Air India in January this year, an executive close to the airline reminded The Economic Times that all these numbers (both revenue increase and losses) primarily reflect AI's performance as a state carrier.

The road ahead

Air India will hope to improve these numbers now that it's under private ownership. And the Tatas have wasted no time in introducing several measures in the last six months to kickstart the process of cleaning up the airline's operations.

Its new Chief Executive Officer, Campbell Wilson, is eager to get its on-time performance up to the mark and on par with acceptable international standards and has asked the concerned department to report directly to him.

Air India mascot
Photo: Getty Images

Under his guidance, the airline is expected to improve its on-ground efficiencies as well as create a customer-centric approach.

AI's fleet strategy has already seen enormous changes in the last few months, from a potential massive order of new aircraft to prepping the grounded fleet for reintroduction next year.

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Some of its employee-centric changes include offering voluntary retirement to some workers while also increasing the retirement age for qualified pilots to meet its immediate fleet requirements.

However, to truly gauge the impact of the new management, we'll have to wait until next year to see the changes in the carrier's financial figures.

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Source: The Economic Times