Air India owes Rs.2,310 crore to oil firms
November 23rd, 2011 - 6:52 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS) The government Wednesday said the debt-ridden national carrier Air India currently owes Rs.2,310 crore (over $440 million) to the state-run oil marketing companies.
“At the end of the first fortnight of September, the outstanding dues, excluding interest, of Air India and its subsidiary companies are Rs.2,310.65 crore,” Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi informed the Lok Sabha in a statement.
According to the statement, the flag carrier and its subsidiaries owe Rs.1,563.67 crore to Indian Oil Corp, followed by Rs.409.82 crore to Bharat Petroleum Corp and Rs.337.16 crore to Hindustan Petroleum Corp.
The minister also informed parliament that Air India’s request for a credit period of three months was approved in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the group of ministers (GoM) formed to look into the turnaround plan of the national carrier.
“The credit period, however, was agreed without exempting Air India from payment of interest,” the minister said.
He said Air India had withdrawn services from 14 non-profitable routes, including both domestic and international.
The routes mentioned by the minister are: Mumbai-Sharjah, Calicut-Doha-Bahrain, Mumbai-Vadodra, Kolkata-Ahmedabad, Hyderabad-Mumbai, Chennai-Mumbai-Kuwait, Hyderabad- Cochin-Coimbatore-Hyderabad, Kolkata-Hyderabad-Kolkata, Bangalore-Singapore, Chennai-Coimbatore, Cochin-Agatti, Mumbai-Nairobi, Jaipur-Kolkata and Chennai-Damman.
The statement comes at a time when the Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines is being criticised for cutting 50 flights daily, especially on non-profitable routes.
The minister said the national carrier had a working capital loan of Rs.22,000 crore, as well as Rs.21,000 crore debt for buying new aircraft. The airline suffered revenue losses worth Rs.200 crore during a pilots’ strike from April 27 to May 7.
- Singapore Airlines cuts fares for summer tourism - Apr 05, 2011
- Air Arabia bags Indian award - Dec 28, 2011
- New planes boost Air India passenger load, revenues (Lead) - Jan 02, 2010
- More flights between Ras Al Khaimah, Indian cities demanded - Jun 28, 2011
- High taxes reason behind rising jet fuel: Ravi - Nov 30, 2011
- Air India pays part of dues, gets accounts defreezed - Dec 08, 2011
- Oil firms increase jet fuel price by 3.70 percent - Nov 30, 2011
- Malaysia's Air Asia to expand flights to five Indian cities - Jan 27, 2010
- Hindware opens first store in south India - Jun 16, 2011
- Government rolls out plan to help domestic airlines (Roundup) - Feb 07, 2012
- Chatwal plans to open 52 hotels in India - Jan 09, 2012
- Kingfisher starts Bangalore-Mysore service - Oct 01, 2010
- With Maharaja a pauper, is it time to sell Air India? - May 08, 2011
- Government approves direct jet fuel import, Air India debt plan (Lead) - Feb 07, 2012
- Private airlines to have global traffic rights - Mar 14, 2012
Tags: agatti, air india, bharat petroleum, bharat petroleum corp, capital loan, credit period, crore, damman, hindustan petroleum, hindustan petroleum corp, Lok Sabha, national carrier, pilots strike, pranab mukherjee, profitable routes, revenue losses, subsidiary companies, turnaround plan, vadodra, vayalar ravi