The Centre is likely to finalise a revival package for the ailing Air India in a month, a top official of the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Tuesday assuring “need-based” support to the debt-laden carrier.

Civil Aviation Secretary, RN Choubey also said the safety audit that the Director General of Civil Aviation ordered on domestic airlines “did not find any backlog of any safety steps that they should have taken.”

State oil marketing companies have stepped up pressure on Air India, threatening to suspend supplies in case of default.

On Monday, the Indian Oil Corporation threatened to snap supply at eight airports over pending dues. However, supply was not discontinued, as the airline made a payment of Rs 1 billion. Air India group companies uplift fuel around Rs 220-230 million daily and the amount has risen over last couple of weeks because of increase in fuel prices.

The Centre will soon announce a fresh turnaround plan (TAP) for Air India that will include transfer of the carrier’s working capital debt of Rs 30,000 crore or 62% of the total debt and non-core assets to a special purpose vehicle as well as an additional Rs 2,056-crore capital support in FY19. Given that AI had borrowed Rs 48,447 crore with an average interest cost of nearly 9%, the debt transfer from its books would give nearly Rs 2,700-crore annual relief to the loss-making carrier from the next financial year.

New Delhi: The government is likely to finalise a revival package for debt-laden Air India in 10 to 15 days, a senior official said on Thursday.

Earlier this year, efforts for strategic disinvestment of the airline failed to take off. The national carrier is estimated to have a debt burden of more than Rs 50,000 crore.

Seeking to reduce cost amid cash crunch and mounting losses, government-run Air India has asked its qualified cabin crew from other bases to relocate either permanently or temporarily to New Delhi if they want to fly wide-body planes.

Air India has its bases across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad, among other cities.

National passenger carrier Air India will deploy its Boeing 747 “Jumbo” aircraft to meet the rising passenger traffic from October 16 to 21.

According to Air India, it will operate the 747 aircraft on Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi and Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi routes.

'Are you sure you want me to book you on a return ticket on Air India?’ Anurag, my ever-so-helpful and slightly-alarmed travel agent asked. I said yes. ‘It’s not all as bad as you make it out to be.’ I’d been on Air India flights before, that too economy, how bad could business class be? It is our national carrier, they fly 777s and 787s - business class promises fully flat seats where you could expect to be relatively comfortable and even get in a night’s sleep.

Even after multiple system failure, adverse weather conditions and lack of fuel while struggling to land at the John F Kennedy Airport in New York, an Air India pilot succeeded in saving the lives of 370 passengers on-board. It was September 11, when Air India’s AI-101 was flying from New Delhi to New York.

In a bid to entice customers this lean season, state-run carrier Air India has come out with a latest offer under which customers can grab a 15% discount on international flight tickets. According to Air India’s website, customers can get a 15% discount on flights to to Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore. Under the promotional sale, the travel period should be before October 27, 2018.

Mumbai: National carrier Air India is under utilising its flagship Boeing Dreamliner fleet due to flight crew shortage as well as technical issues with only 21 planes being deployed for operations every day, an airline source said.

Air India has 27 Boeing 787-800 (Dreamliner) aircraft in its fleet at present.

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