AI chief Bansal vows to work with ‘missionary zeal’

Senior IAS officer Rajiv Bansal on Thursday took charge as the interim Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India, saying he was committed to working on the airline’s profitability with a “missionary zeal”. The state-owned airline, which has a debt burden of more than ~50,000 crore, has been in the red for long but managed to eke out operational profit for the first time in a decade in 2015-16.“We will plan to work on profitability with a missionary zeal, improve our on-time performance and ensure customer satisfaction,” Bansal said in a statement after assuming charge as Air India’s CMD.