Air India plans to fly next set of Dreamliners to Sydney, Singapore, Melbourne and Istanbul

Air India is drawing up plans to deploy the five new Boeing Dreamliners B-787, which it expects to receive during the next few weeks, on the Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Bali and Istanbul routes.

At present, Air India has received three Dreamliners and five more will be received during the current financial year, which the Air India plans to fly to Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore, according to Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Thursday.

Mr. Singh also asked Air India to explore the possibility of flying to Indonesia, including Bali and Istanbul and beyond. He made this suggestion at a meeting here to review the functioning of Air India, including its revenue generation and cash flow management as part of its turnaround and financial restructuring plans.

Expressing satisfaction over the payment of salaries to the employees till November, he said out of Rs. 2,000 crore, which Air India would receive next month in the form of equity as budgetary support, Rs. 500 crore must be utilised to clear all arrears of the employees.

Expressing concern over the estimated shortfall of about Rs. 404 crore in the monthly average cash flow, he directed Air India to try to ensure that cash inflow matched the outflow. In the ongoing financial year so far, the airline's revenue was Rs. 1,348 crore and expenditure Rs. 1,752 crore. He asked Air India to go into operational details to cut costs, especially on heads like its overseas offices, fuel, salaries and office expenses, the spokesperson said.

Asking Air India to think out of the box and run the organisation as a commercial entity instead of a government owned body, Mr. Singh said the airline should negotiate with public sector oil marketing companies for the same discount as they provided to the international and other Indian carriers. He directed the airline to examine whether it was necessary to depute staff abroad for assisting Embassies to provide ticketing and other facilities as such services were now available online.

He said an automated Crew Management System (Auto Roster) would become operational for pilots by the next month and for cabin crew by February-March next year. The new system is an algorithm that automates the task of Flight Duty Assignments aiming at equalising flying hours, sectors flown, day and night flights, number of landings and other parameters. Mr. Singh also stressed on the need to screen the employees including the cabin crew on various parameters such as medical fitness.

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