Air India remains unfazed by the uncertainty around its planned privatisation after New Delhi received no responses from interested parties.
Speaking to FlightGlobal, chairman and managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola says the airline has been focused on managing its growth expectations and running Air India efficiently, stressing that it will be up to the government to decide a way forward.
Measures the airline has taken include improving its operating efficiency and raising aircraft utilisation rates. It is also investing in improvements to its service and IT systems to meet the standards required by Star Alliance.
In the all-competitive domestic market, Air India is ramping up marketing efforts in an attempt to retain market share, and expanding its low-cost carrier Air India Express and regional operator Alliance Air.
"I would say India is a very diverse market. The strength of Air India [group] is that we have a very diversified product," notes Kharola.
Air India's key targets for the current financial year, include raising seat load factors and continuing to rein in its financial losses.
While Kharola says that they are "still counting the figures" on its results for the 2017/18 fiscal year, there have been other notable improvements across its business.
"Operational parametres have shown tremendous improvement, seat load factors have grown, revenue has grown, the on-time performance has also grown."
Source: Cirium Dashboard
