For the financial year 2025, Air India, the full service carrier in the Tata Sons fold, shored up its revenue to a record level of ₹61,000 crore reportedly.
Air India Revenue Soars To Record Levels
The National carrier has clocked a profit excluding exceptional items in the second half of the fiscal year as the airline advances towards becoming “a self-sustaining” company as informed by the CEO Campbell Wilson to employees during a townhall last week.
Not only that, Air India’s losses have been reduced by more than 40% since the privatisation of the erstwhile national carrier in January 2022 now the airline aims to achieve break-even.
Considering the revenue figures, they signal a 40% compounded annual growth rate since 2022 and a 13% surge since fiscal 2024, according to multiple sources.
Besides this, the airline’s operating profitability i.e. EBITDAR (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization and Rent or Restructuring) also grew 1.59 times over the previous fiscal and four times over the past three years.
More Efforts For Air India Express
The same is not true for the low-cost arm of the Air India Group, Air India Express, which was included in the sale of Air India to Tata Sons.
Air India Express needs to cross some distance to cover after completing the merger with AirAsia India and rapidly expanding its fleet last year.
While talking about the airline’s financial performance without divulging any numbers, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said, “on the full-service carrier side, we’re very happy with the trajectory. It has been good progress. The low-cost carrier went from 25 aircraft to over 100 aircraft in a very short span of time, and that rate of growth was quite astonishing. So, it does take a while to digest and optimize and they have a little bit more work to do,” in a media interview last month.
In September 2023, the combined fleet of the merged entity grew from 54 aircraft to 115 aircraft.
Moving ahead, Mr Wilson said Air India’s financial performance signals its progress towards being a “self-sustaining” company, during his presentation to the employees.
In the meantime, Air India’s fleet size grew to 205 aircraft during FY 2025, and it flew a total of 4.35 crore passengers.
“Air India has requested a subsidy worth $600 million annually from the government because of the financial hit it will incur due to the closure of Pakistan’s airspace and the resultant re-routings undertaken by the airline for its west-bound flights,” noted Mr. Wilson.
