Air India cuts loss but AI Express sees it rising

New Delhi: Tata's full service Air India managed to cut its loss by almost a quarter, while the low cost (LCC) Air India Express saw its loss more than triple in the first fiscal (FY26) of the salt-to-satellite conglomerate consolidating its airline business.

AIX Connect (erstwhile AirAsia India) was merged into AI Express last October. The merged LCC's provisional loss in FY25 was Rs 5,678 crore, up from Rs 1,357 crore combined loss of AI Express (Rs 163 crore) and AIX Connect (Rs 1,194 crore). Vistara was merged into Air India last Nov and the combined full service carrier's loss in FY25 was 3,890, down from combined loss of Rs 5,025 crore of AI (Rs 4,444 crore) and Vistara (Rs 581 crore) in FY 24.

AI Express had been profitable in three out of last nine years. On a combined operational and financial basis, AI and erstwhile AIX Connect (which started flying in the summer of 2014) were the biggest challenges on a standalone basis.