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The civil aviation minister Praful Patel mentioned on Wednesday that government is ready for lending financial help to the cash-strapped Air India. Government will be lending $1.1 billion if Air India will find the same amount in costs cuts and extra revenue.
The airline had lost $875 million during the 2008-09 fiscal and had asked the government for bailout.
"The government has demonstrated its sincerity and agreed to an equity infusion... of 50 billion rupees," Patel said after a meeting with Air India management and unions.
“The airline must cut costs by 30 billion rupees and raise revenue by 20 billion in the next two years”, he said.
When asked about the cuts in salary, Patel said "it is only one aspect of cost cutting."
He also mentioned that the employees and management of Air India will work together to "forge a way out of the current crisis."
Air traffic has shown an uptrend in the last month and is showing some signs of a recovery, Patel said.
