Crisis-ridden Air India is expected to present a new turnaround plan to the key Parliamentary Committee going into the issue of how the national carrier has landed deeply in the red.
Chairman-cum-Managing Director Arvind Jadhav on Thursday made a presentation before the Committee on Public Undertakings headed by senior Congress MP V Kishore Chandra Deo.
Sources said that the presentation led to a number of searching questions to the Air India top brass as to how it could term the current turnaround programme as adequate when a deficit of a whopping Rs 5,320 crore would remain even after its implementation.
The airline management has sought more time to answer the queries of members, saying it was busy grappling with the situation caused by recent strike by senior pilots. It said it will come up with a new turnaround plan and present the same before the panel.
The members wanted to know that how the austerity measures and other steps taken by it could minimise the loss which is in the range of around Rs 16,000 crore.
The government had decided to extend “fullest support” to Air India by infusing equity and converting high cost debt to low-cost.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had said that the government’s desire was to ensure improvement in Air India’s financial health through the turnaround plan and had briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the proposal.
