It is simple mathematics. Over Rs 7,200 crore losses, a Rs 45,000 crore bill to acquire new aircrafts, equity as low as Rs 145 crore and over 30,000 irate employees ready to bring its operations to a grind if there is a salary cut. All this adds up to deep trouble for Air India.

Is there any hope of a turn around? The government has been in the midst of trying out several options to infuse cash into the resource-starved company piling up losses. At least for now, it has not weighed the option of privatising the national carrier. What if the company is returned to its parents? Will the Maharaja regain its pride of place amongst air travellers as the Tatas’ flagship brand?

Government officials - who perpetually fear losing their grip on situations – do not entirely agree. “There needs to be an airline that is not just for profit maximisation. It needs to address issues like better connectivity in north-eastern states or attending to causes like Air India took upon itself,” former aviation secretary Ajay Prasad told Financial Chronicle.

He thinks that the national carrier can be turned around if changes are made in the way it is being operated. “It would be too simple to say that returning AI to the Tatas would be the answer to all its problems. It needs to be restructured, its extra flab cut and managed well.

Ironically, for employees, their chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav and ‘babus’ in Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan running the airline from the backdoor are villains of the peace. They detest Jadhav for proposing a wage cut to pull the airline out of the red. They blame the bureaucracy for all ills bogging the airline. For them, Tatas are the only hope to get the carrier out of the woods. “If there is anyone who can help the Maharaja to breathe fresh lease of life, it is Tatas,” said VJ Deka of the Aviation Industry Employees Guild. The AI workforce has been very vocal against privatisation of the airline.

The carrier was born in 1932. JRD Tata flew a single-engine De Havilland carrying airmail from Karachi to Bombay. The government bought a 49 per cent stake in the company in 1949. And, in 1953, it acquired a majority stake.