Air India may still have to fly on international routes on which it is not making money at the moment.
Air India operates around 45 international flights a day, a majority of which do not make money.
Sources said that there are some flights like those to destinations in North America such as Toronto, which do not even meet the cost of the aviation turbine fuel needed to operate the service.
Timeframe for turnaround
Official sources told
Sources also indicated that the airline could be given between six months to a year to make an unprofitable route profitable.
“The Group of Ministers (GoM) was clear that Air India's routes must be profitable. We will implement the decision,” a senior Government official said.
The GoM, headed by the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, while providing funds to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore to Air India, categorically stated that the airline routes must be made profitable.
Committee set up
A committee has now been set up to look at the international routes on which Air India operates and suggest ways of making those that are losing money profitable for the airline.
Air India may temporarily withdraw its services from these loss-making routes but at the moment, there is no thinking on asking other Indian or international carriers to operate on these international routes in place of Air India.
Induction of New aircraft
Officials indicated that the induction of new aircraft such as the Boeing 787 will make a major difference in operating revenues on several routes.
This could be on account of lighter weight of the aircraft which increases fuel efficiency by 20-30 per cent of the existing aircraft in the airline fleet.
The induction of the Boeing 787 aircraft has been delayed by close to five years due to production problems that the manufacturer is facing.
The delay in induction is also affecting the profitability on international routes, officials said.
Currently several of the long haul routes are losing money as the wrong aircraft type are being deployed on these routes.