CEA wonders if Air India should 'exist at all'

Air India's performance has improved with competition posed by private players, chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian said Thursday, but wondered whether the airline should "exist at all". The carrier, staying afloat on a INR300b bailout package from the central govt, is working on ways to improve its financial position. In the last fiscal ended March 2016, the airline had posted an operational profit of INR1.05b "Air India with IndiGo and Jet Airways is very different from Air India without... Whether Air India should exist at all even with Jet Airways and IndiGo is another question which we don't want to go into now," Subramanian said. The point is competition has actually improved Air India's performance, he added. While there have been clamours to privatise the airline, the govt has so far desisted from taking a view on this.<br/>