NEW DELHI: With the Budget announcing that a second attempt will be made to disinvest Air India, 13 unions of the airline will meet chairman Ashwani Lohani on Monday morning. The Budget has allocated Rs 1 lakh crore for AI and sources say that unless the government infuses funds to keep the airline running till — and if — it is sold off, the Maharaja could run out of cash to pay salaries beyond October. AI has a debt of almost Rs 55,000 crore.
Employees are clearly worried on both counts — what happens to their jobs in case the airline is sold off and about getting their pay beyond October by when the airline may run out of cash unless fresh equity infusion takes place. AI’s annual wage is about Rs 2,400 crore for its 9- 10,000 permanent employees and another 3,000 on contract.
Among the unions that will meet the management are those of employees, technicians, aircraft engineers association, pilots and cabin crew. AI has to repay over Rs 10,000 crore debt this year, for which it has no funds. Default on that will be bad news for the airline.
