Air Indiabelieves it is an "operationally viable" airline as compared to two years ago, but is still concerned about its financial situation. In a televised interview, airline chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani says that despite making an operating profit of Rs1.05 billion (USD 15.7 million) for the 2016 financial year and forecasting that it operating profit will grow threefold in its next financial year, the carrier's financial situation "has not stabilised at all". Buy air tickets ONLINE "We still have a huge amount of money needed to be repaid as interest for borrowings due to past years of losses, amounting to Rs40 billion annually." "We still have a huge amount of money needed to be repaid as interest for borrowings due to past years of losses, amounting to Rs40 billion annually.""That is what's pulling us down," Lohani adds. "We are an operationally viable airline, but not financially viable." Lohani says thatAir India's international network expansion as a "greater asset" to feeding its "even faster growing" domestic network. He also reveals that the Star Alliance carrier is eye new routes to Africa, and more Middle East destinations like Tel Aviv. Ukraine Aviation Portal "Our passenger occupancy (load factor) is quite encouraging and we believe that we can grow even more. There are not many full-service airlines in India and we are quite special." Data from India's director general of civil aviation shows that on domestic air travel for the first three months of this year,Air India's load factor came in at 79.7%, behindSpiceJet(85.7%),Vistara(85.1%),GoAir(81.8%) andJet Airways(80.7%). Jet AirwaysandVistaraare the only two mainline full-service carriers in India. OnAir India's impending divestment, Lohani believes the carrier's staff should have no worry about layoffs. "Whoever runsAir Indiawill require commercial staff, engineers, pilots and cabin crew. Based on our expansion rate, we are still under-staffed." He is confident that the divestment will helpAir Indiawith a "complete turnaround", but acknowledges that the carrier's accumulated debt of Rs550 billion "will not be easy to handle." In late June, New Delhi gave in-principle approval to privatiseAir Indiaand five of its subsidiaries. So far, only low-cost juggernautIndiGohas expressed a formal interest in acquiringAir India's international operations. | 
