Disinvestment-bound Air India clocked 11 per cent growth in revenue in the financial year ending March 2018 on higher passengers traffic across its network.

Pradeep Singh Kharola, airline chairman and managing director, on Thursday said Air India improved performance on key parameters in FY18 and passenger load factor stood at 80 per cent.

“The financials are being firmed up but fiscal parameters have been good (in FY18),” Kharola said noting the airline’s on-time perfo­r­mance had seen marked improvement. He was speaking here on the sidelines of a tourism and aviation meet.

In FY17, the airline raked in Rs 22,177.68 crore reve­n­ue against Rs 20,610.33 cr­ore a year ago, as per the annual report.

The government last mo­nth came out with the preliminary information memorandum for the strategic disinvestment of Air India, wh­e­rein it plans to offload 76 per cent as well as cede ma­n­agement control to private players.

In February, the civil aviation ministry said Air India has been “consistently imp­r­o­ving” its performance and more than doubled its opera­ting profit to Rs 298.03 crore in 2016-17. However, the airline’s net loss widened to Rs 5,765.16 crore.  In 2015-16, Air India had an operating profit of Rs 105 crore and net loss Rs 3,836.77 crore.

“Air India has been consistently improving its overall financial and operational performance since the implementation of the turnaround plan by the government,” minister of state for aviation Jayant Sinha had told the Lok Sabha on February 8.

Air India is in deep red with Rs 50,000 crore debt.