Speaking to local media, Ashwani Lohani, chairman and managing director of Air India, has confirmed that the airline’s debt burden is a significant hurdle to growth and that the carrier is seeking a debt restructuring. Lohani said that the costs of serving Air India’s debt runs to Rs4,000 crore every year: “We definitely want to do a debt restructuring, (but are) still working on it; nothing concrete has emerged. It’s not a very easy thing, we have no clue of what can happen, what can be done.”
Air India has been aided by low oil costs but with costs rising, the airline needs to “fill more and fly more”, says Lohani.
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Air India A320[/caption]