took over as the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Air India in September this year, before which he served as the Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC) managing director. A 1980-batch Indian Railway Mechanical Engineering Services officer, Lohani holds four degrees — mechanical, electrical, metallurgical and electronics — for which his name figures in the Limca Book of Records. Lohani was the CMD of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) in the previous NDA government, a tenure that was mired in controversy over his reportedly opposing the disinvestment of ITDC’s Ashok Hotel as it was on the road to recovery; he was removed from the post in 2002, some eight months before his term was to end. Known for engineering turnarounds at MPSTDC and ITDC, taking Air India — which in 2014-15 showed operational losses of `5,547 crore — into the black is doubtless the 57-year-old’s biggest challenge. In this exclusive interview with, Lohani talks about the goals he has set for his three-year tenure, the challenges before the national carrier and the turnaround plan for the ailing airline. Edited excerpts:Right now the focus is on improving brand image, productivity, service, motivational level as well as staff morale. And that the airline gives a good experience to its passenger.If the experience is good, it will automatically translate into good numbers. Eventually it has to be about numbers — about higher number of more satisfied customers, which would translate into money. The key is to have higher number of more satisfied customers.The biggest challenges are primarily issues related to the merger of the two airlines ( Indian Airlines was merged into Air India in 2007). There are a lot of issues that are to be resolved whenever there is a merger. Almost everybody has a grouse. They pose the biggest challenge. Even the one who has received good money is not happy.Apart from the merger-related issues, Air India inevitably makes news for issues such as exodus of pilots, piling debt and voluntary retirement.These are again in some way or the other related to the merger. Pilots may look out for better deals outside; they may feel that they are not getting paid what is their due here.We are harmonising their pay scales. Whenever two organisations merge, the pay scales have to be harmonised. That could not be done for a few categories of pilots. We are on the verge of completing that — it will be one big step. This is one method and the other is looking at personal and professional issues being faced by the pilots. Everybody wants to work for an organisation that is doing well and going places. We also have to give to our staff the confidence that they are working for a good organisation, the confidence that this organisation will also do well. This as well as harmonisation of pay scales should be able to take care of the pending issues. Air India announced new routes, both national and international, in the recent past.We have added many new flights in and outside the country. We have just added Delhi-San Francisco and Ahmedabad-London. We have already announced that we are looking at Washington. We will expand the network, increase the frequency and destinations — all this is on the cards. Air India used to go to Africa earlier. In the long term, we dream of going to South Africa, South America as well as connect more European destinations. But all that will first require an assessment of how the flight is going to do. And then if the assessment is positive we plan to bring the basic infrastructure in place — pilots, cabin crew, engineer, stewards, carriers and the like. As of now it is at the level of an idea. But again every beginning happens from the level of ideation.We agree that our on-time arrival is lower than industry average. We clocked an ontime performance of 80% last month; the industry average should be around 7-8% higher than ours. But on-time performance is just an end result.Certainly. But on-time performance is the final product; there are so many processes involved towards that end. It is not something that can be fixed straight away. The staff morale, the motivational level, the staff shortage and the fact that Air India is a loss-making enterprise, all of that plays a role. Ontime performance is a culmination of so many factors. Even If I want I can’t make it happen in a day. We are tightening the screws. Towards that end we are working on multiple fronts.We are not placing orders for any new aircraft. Of the old order for 27 Dreamliners, we have received 21 and the rest are awaited. But as far as new orders are concerned, we are not buying any new planes but taking them on lease.You were previously the managing director of Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation and before that with Northern Railways. Many wonder what a railway person is doing in Air India...How is the perception now? I am sure that notion has changed now. There is no rocket science involved — either to run a rail organisation, a hotel or an airline. It all boils down to your commitment, determination, will, hard work and the ability to take decisions.I will put it in another way. I have worked in railways, I have worked in tourism and I have worked in corporations. Now I am working with an airline. In different forms they are either related to transportation or tourism. The turnaround, the impact and the magnitude may be different but there are a lot of things that are fundamentally common. So this is certainly an advantageous situation. Again there’s no rocket science.The organisation is vastly spread out. It is very much a live wire organisation. A hotel that has a safety issue can be vacated or shut but not an aircraft. Also attention to details and focus on safety are much higher. Safety is paramount. It can’t be compromised.Many CMDs have come and gone in the past two decades but the situation has rarely improved for the airline. SBI Capital Markets was asked to come up with a turnaround plan to fly the airline into the black...SBI Capital Markets has already made a turnaround plan for Air India. In its original proposal, SBI Capital had fixed a deadline of 2021-22 for Air India to turn profitable. But we have brought the target turnaround year down by three years to 2018-19. This means that in financial year 2018-19, Air India should be able to make a profit on a year-on-year basis.I have not thought about that. It is beyond my imagination.No, I can’t imagine that.It is a matter of policy. I am not in favour of privatisation. I believe in turning around an organisation and not privatising it. In my stint at ITDC, I was branded as anti-disinvestment.I can’t say that now but yes we have brought down that six-year period fixed by SBI Capital Markets. It will happen not later than 2018-19. But that turnaround will not happen because of any strategy but because of willpower. I am driven by that dream. Turning around an organisation is an intoxicant for me. I live that dream. I am working for that pleasure, for that high.So many employees just resign without much thought. We do not have the power to hire regular staff. We can only take people on a contractual basis. So how do I get more working hands? How do I get old hands but by retaining them? As far as increasing the retirement age from 58 to 60 is concerned, it is only at a proposal stage right now. First of all, 58 is not an age to retire. Anyone can work till the age of 65. Also, if the retirement is delayed by two years, we will save the cash outgo in terms of retirement benefits for those two years — as no one will retire in two years. Ultimately, these two years are crucial (towards our aim of turning around Air India in 2018-19).I work for some 11 and a half to 12 hours. I do work on Saturdays and half day on Sundays. Only once have I taken a self-willed leave for a week — that was when I got married, 28 years back. Work is pleasure for me.