The other area of concern is the huge loses Air India has made on some of the important routes. Consider this:

• The airline withdrew its Mumbai-Hong Kong flight last August after estimating annual losses of Rs 235 crore on the route.

• It rerouted its Delhi-New York flight to start from Kolkata after it estimated annual loss to the tune of Rs 236 crore.

• Delhi-London-New York flight was making Rs 224 crore loss, so New York was dropped last September to make this a Delhi-London flight in the hope that Rs 155 crore will be saved. Instead, a Delhi-Kathmandu flight was launched in February to make some gains.

• The airline withdrew Mumbai-London-Chicago service after an estimated Rs 128-crore loss, re-routed via Frankfurt now.

• Delhi-Frankfurt-Los Angeles flight was withdrawn last September after an estimated Rs 114-crore loss.

On the domestic front, the airline is making losses of about Rs 20 crore annually on the Mumbai-Kochi-Trivandrum route and about Rs 18.5 crore on the Mumbai-Raipur-Bhubaneswar flight. It withdrew flights on the Chennai-Mumbai and Chennai-Kolkata routes last year.