Saying Air India should cut on the number of loss-making routes, Ministerfor Civil Aviation Praful Patel said today the government will not interfere ona daily basis in the national carrier’s functioning.

“We will support every move of thecarrier. But we also expect equal commitment from employees of the airline. Thegovernment will not advise Air India on a daily basis. They (the airline) willhave to decide everything,” Patel said at the launch of India Aviation 2020,scheduled from March 3 to 7 nest year in Hyderabad. The minister said AI shouldtransform top-level management, the organisation and operations and cutloss-making routes.

The minister, while speaking at the event organised by the Federation of IndianChambers of Commerce and Industry here today, said the problems at AI did notcome up overnight. The airline’s high-cost structure and the compulsions ofbeing a public sector unit had been the reasons and it had been making a loss,he said. AI is to incur a loss of over Rs 7,000 crore this fiscal year. Thegovernment had asked the airline to come up with a restructuring plan in 30days.

The airline had asked SBI Caps to prepare a report. It is to come this week anda committee of secretaries will discuss it in a meeting on Saturday.“The worldis migrating from a full-service carrier to a low-cost carrier regime. We arealso in that phase and once that happens, aviation in India will see a hugegrowth,” said Patel.

To fill vacancies in Air Traffic Control, the ministry is planning toapproach retired personnel from the defence forces, as well as retiredprofessionals from the civilian side, on contract.