Air India’s New Turnaround Plan: Board Managed Airline With Reduced Government Interference

Air India may be run by a board if a turnaround plan involving both financial and organisational reform is approved according to a senior Air India official, Livemint has reported.

“The plan is to make Air India stand on its own feet so that it can be sold in future,” the Air India official who wished to remain anonymous told Livemint. If Air India becomes a board managed company, there would be less intervention from the government in the manner in which the airline is administered.

Civil aviation secretary CN Choubey had informed the media that the government’s new turnaround plan could be cleared by the end of September. The matter could be decided bilaterally between the finance minister and the civil aviation minister or approved in a cabinet meeting.

Currently, Kumar Mangalam Birla and YC Deveshwar are non-official directors of Air India. Another independent director could be appointed to the board. The government’s attempt to privatise the airline did not succeed as no bids were received. The current move to reform Air India could improve future prospects of the company from the view of better operations and future sale-ability.