Air India plans to expand its US network, including new flights to Newark and Washington and reduce interest burden through refinancing of existing Rs 10,000 crore term loans with government-guarantee backed debentures.

Air India is expected to cut down losses by 40% to Rs 3,529 crore in FY16 from Rs 5,859 crore in the previous year, aided by reduction in jet fuel cost. However, the airline is set to miss its revenue growth target and has been unable to significantly lower its interest and maintenance expenses resulting in the high loss figure.

In a departure from its current practice, state-owned carrier Air India has decided that in the future, it will hire all pilots on contract, thus doing away with the permanent-employee status for them.

Sources said that the airline is set to hire 532 pilots in the future and of these, 200-250 will be recruited in the current year. The practice of hiring pilots on a contractual basis was started last year when Air India recruited 70 pilots who are currently undergoing training. Now, the airline has decided to institutionalise this practice.

In a bid to regain its status as the king of domestic skies and challenge IndiGo’s monopoly, Air India is planning to raise its capacity on domestic routes by using wide-bodied Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes. The carrier plans to use them in its high-capacity routes.

Simultaneously, the airline will fly the A320s between the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, which experts believe has huge potential due to the government’s stress on regional route expansion.

Mumbai: Air India Express, the low-fare international unit of Air India Ltd, is expecting to post a net profit of Rs.200 crore in 2015-16, airline chief executive officer K. Shyam Sundar said on Wednesday.

The airline posted a net loss of Rs.60 crore in 2014-15.

A 1 January directive by the civil aviation ministry to state-owned airline Air India helps take salaries of some of the airline’s pilots to market levels but also imposes several penalties on them, including pay cuts, for reporting late or for missing flights.

“The way this has been drafted and pushed through, if the unions take a stand, it will lead to industrial disputes and disruptions,” said Mohan Ranganathan, a Chennai-based aviation safety consultant who has negotiated with the management as part of Air India’s unions in the past.

A cabin crew member of national carrier Air India was recently caught by vigilance officials stealing in-flight meals.

Following a tip-off about a woman cabin crew member arriving from an international flight (AI 274) from Colombo, the officers screened her baggage to find that she had pilfered various items, according to a report in Hindustan Times.

Inderjit Singh Reyat, the lone person convicted for the 1985 Air India Kanishka bombing that killed all 329 people on board, was today released from prison in Canada after serving two decades behind bars.

Reyat was convicted of perjury in 2010 for lying to the court in 2003 during the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, who were acquitted in the terrorist attack.

In a notable change of stance, Air India has decided not to oppose the scrapping of the ‘5/20 rule’, making it easier for the government to abolish the law.

In a recent meeting with the civil aviation ministry, Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani said the airline would not oppose the proposed scrapping the rule.

In one of the biggest pilot recruitment drives, state-run Air India will hire about 530 type-rated pilots on contract for the carrier’s narrow-body fleet, expected to grow to about 80 aircraft by March 2018.

The present strength of this fleet is 66.

Air India will introduce daily flight services from Dubai to Kochi from January 11, adhering to the long-pending demand of Indians living in Dubai, the company said.

"Air India will be operating Dubai-Kochi-Dubai sector with brand new A320 aircraft with a cap of 180 seats," said Melwin D'Silva, Regional Manager Gulf, Middle East and Africa of Air India.

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