Indian Airways companies are facing a tough time as customers have become very aware of the features they want. Also, most people book tickets in economic class due to which Airlines are not making good money. In the latest report of The Print website, Air India is losing Rs 6 crore a daily because of Pakistan’s ban on its eastern airspace for Indian airlines.
Air India has lost a total of Rs 720 crore in the last 4 months from 27 February. Since February, the airline has been experiencing daily cancellations of flights on some routes and re-routing of some other flights as a result of the ban.
The trouble is going to continue as Pakistan has extended the ban on its eastern airspace until 12 July for all overflying/transit flights to and from India. Because both countries don’t seem to be in a mood of changing their decisions and Air India has now written to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), seeking help.
“The loss on a daily basis is much higher than the total income of our employees. This is the reason, we have written to IATA to participate and sort this issue at the earliest.” said an anonymous staff from Air India.
“If we were a private airline, we would have drowned by now going by our daily losses but we are managing to cope up with this,” he added.
Quote Source: The Print
Bad phase for Air India
In the last financial year, Air India registered a loss of Rs 7,635 crore, with a total debt of Rs 58,000 crore as on 31 March 2019.
These numbers were shared by Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday with the Rajya Sabha, said the Air India official.
To cope up with these losses, Air India is trying to meet the heavy demand of seats by increasing its routes and operation of additional flights on domestic and international routes, an Air India statement said last month.
Among the Indian airlines, Air India has the max. number of international flights to the US and Europe. A large portion of them fly over Pakistan.
Also Read: How SpiceJet Is Making The Most Of Jet Airways Shut Down
Why this ban
The ban was applied on all Indian airlines after from flying over Pakistan airspace after the Indian Air Force carried out air strikes on a terror camp in Balakot on 26 February. These strikes were in response to the terror attack in Pulwama on 14 February.
