No fuel for Air India at 6 airports: Lakshadweep off air map as Alliance Air flights hit
NEW DELHI: It could be endgame for Air India unless the government immediately gives some life-saving funds to the airline which has sent an SOS for Rs 2,500 crore to meet working capital requirement. “If AI does not get this support, it cannot continue for too long,” said a person in the know.
While the airline is saddled with debt-cum-liabilities of almost Rs 60,000 crore, the immediate cause of concern for it is oil marketing companies (OMC) from Thursday cutting off aviation turbine fuel (ATF) supply at six airports — Kochi, Mohali, Pune, Ranchi, Patna and Visakhapatnam — citing Rs 5,000 crore dues (with interest) from AI Group. An airline spokesman says this move so far has not affected parent AI’s flights but of its regional arm Alliance Air (AA) which operates a fleet of turboprop ATRs.
The first casualty of this has been Lakshadweep getting off the air map of India. AA was the only airline flying to Agatti Island, the sole civilian airport in the archipelago. It has withdrawn the Kochi-Agatti-Kochi flight — the only civilian flight to Lakshwadeep.
