2008 was the struggling period for Air India when Austrian Gustav Baldauf, a former pilot with 14,000 hours of flying experience was appointed as chief operating officer at Air India. With his take over it was expected that it would be a turning point for the airline. But Baldauf resigned on February 28 due to unavoidable reasons when everybody lost hope for the Air India.

Air India is in an immediate need of right from fixing day to day operations to adjusting its increasing debts and loss of market share. After his resignations everything remains as puzzled as before.

There was a time when staff union has offered strike notice, debt had climbed to Rs. 15,000 crore and two of its senior official namely Pawan Arora, COO of Air India Express and Stephen Sukumar, chief training officer had also resigned. It was announced to merge Air India with Indian Airlines but merger remain on papers only and till date both the airlines are operating as separate entities.

At present it seems like the appointment of new civil aviation minister, Vayalar Ravi will bring changes in the airline. He has taken all the things in his hands. Ravi has been in the labour movement for nearly 60 years.