Reportedly the government may find it tougher to find a suiting national carrier as air india has had higher post-loss losses. In the meantime, minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep puri said the airline has posted a loss of Rs 8,556.35 crore in the financial year 2018-19, much higher than the loss of Rs 5,348.18 crore in the previous year. This is why some favorable winds like the indian context of shutting down Jet Airways and the prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) following a relatively steady curve.
Perhaps with the above loss figure, the airline is sitting on accumulated losses of Rs 69,575.64 crore from the last decade. Air india was merged with indian airlines in 2007-08 and there has not been a single year when the airline made any profit and it has been a loss-making all the way. So this has led experts in the industry to conclude that government is incapable of running a competitive airline and privatization is the only answer.
Reportedly, air india operates its flights to 31 countries covering 43 overseas destinations and within the country, it has 55 airports from landing and taking off. Moreover, minister puri has already gone on record saying that if the government cannot sell off the airline, it will shut down its operations and the government is not in a position to do so. Maybe in order to make it easier for the bidder, the government has already shifted part of the debts of air india to a separate holding company. The prospective buyer will look at tangible assets such as aircraft, landing permits and slots in the airports and debts left in the airline will match these assets.
