Air India’s new owner might be able to lay off staff, trim fleet size: Report

With the Air India privatisation being pushed to the next fiscal year, the Centre would probably make it easier for the new owner of the airline to trim its fleet size by hiving off surplus aircraft lying grounded and lay off staff.

Considering the situation, the pandemic-hit aviation sector is still looking for ways to recover from the losses it incurred during the lockdown.

“Looking at the prevailing conditions acting as an overhang on the aviation sector, the new entity acquiring AI will be allowed to sell a few aircraft or return them to the lessor. They are anyway grounded due to lack of demand. With some aircraft sold, the manpower requirement, too, will drop. Proportionately, there can be some layoffs,” Business Standard quoted an official.