Air India Group:
- Air India, Air India Express and Alliance Air
- Combined fleet of 161 aircraft,
- Operates 475 flights a day serving 78 domestic and 44 international destinations.
It is a majestic airline which flies long and ultra-long, that is, flights up to 16 hours duration, but its financial status indicate a hopeless situation.
Against the backdrop of rising fuel prices, the three oil companies - Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Ltd- have asked Air India to clear their dues towards daily billing.
The government-run Air India lifts ATF mainly from the three oil marketing firms - also run by the government- worth over Rs 6000 million a month on an average.
Air India, as usual, faces cash crunch and can not even pay salaries to its staff on time. With a debt pile of over Rs 5,00,000 million, no buyer in the world is keen to invest in Air India. To meet its working capital requirements, Air India continues to seek short-term borrowings. It has already borrowed Rs 62,500 million from various banks between September and March quarters last fiscal for its day-to-day capital needs.
Air India is still waiting for a Rs 9800 million in supplementary grants towards equity infusion for which the government had sought Parliament's approval. However, it did receive an equity infusion of Rs 6500 million up to June.
With an organisation like Air India staying afloat on such life-support systems alone, unable to pay its fuel bills, unable to pay staff salaries on time, unable to prevent its planes getting grounded due to lack of spares, industry observers can now see the writings on the wall clearly. Air India may close down soon as it is rapidly running out of 'fuel'.