Air India Group's net loss widened to over Rs 6,000 crore in the first quarter of FY27 — the April-June 2026 quarter — more than double the loss of over Rs 3,000 crore recorded in the same quarter a year earlier, industry sources told The Hindu BusinessLine. In plain terms, Rs 6,000 crore is Rs 60 billion lost in a single quarter.
Source: The Hindu BusinessLine
The Tata Group-promoted airline group had ended FY26 with a consolidated loss exceeding Rs 22,000 crore, up from nearly Rs 11,000 crore in the preceding financial year, the report said. The figures are based on industry sources; Air India did not comment when contacted by BusinessLine.
Fuel is now over half the cost bill
Industry sources cited three pressures behind the wider loss: intense foreign-exchange fluctuations, persistently high fuel costs and airspace closures. Fuel now accounts for over 50 per cent of the group's operating expenditure, and insiders described the April-June quarter as a "challenging operating environment" in which conditions deteriorated further as aviation turbine fuel costs rose.
Airspace restrictions have forced Air India's Europe and North America services onto longer routes, increasing flying time and fuel burn while also affecting crew deployment and aircraft utilisation. The airline had earlier estimated that Pakistan's airspace closure alone could cost it around Rs 4,000 crore on an annualised basis.
Forex losses had already surged in FY26
Currency swings are the third leg of the squeeze: leases, maintenance and other requirements involve large foreign-currency expenditure, and the group's consolidated forex losses had risen to around Rs 7,400 crore in FY26 from around Rs 1,500 crore a year earlier, according to the report.
Whalesbook, reporting the same quarterly figure, likewise put the Q1 FY27 loss at over Rs 6,000 crore against more than Rs 3,000 crore a year earlier and the FY26 consolidated loss at over Rs 22,000 crore, and noted that the unlisted carrier's results are closely watched as a gauge of stress across India's aviation sector.
Source: Whalesbook
Air India has not publicly commented on the reported figures. With fuel above half of operating costs and long-haul routes still lengthened by airspace closures, the group's return to profit depends on fuel prices, the rupee and any easing of the airspace restrictions.