Mumbai: Air India will soon be managed by a board, if a turnaround plan being charted out by the government that involves financial and organization reform is approved, a senior Air India official aware of the development said on condition of anonymity.

“The plan is to make Air India stand on its own feet so that it can be sold in future,” said the official cited above.

In a breather to Indian aviation industry, which is reeling under rising fuel prices, low fares and high taxes, the government is working on a relief package for the airlines to help them cut costs and cope with depreciating rupee. While speaking on the sidelines of the International Aviation Summit organised by the International Air Transport Association,

With cash crunch likely to continue in Air India (AI) due to rising fuel costs, the Centre may infuse additional Rs 2,200 crore in the debt-ridden national carrier later in the current financial year to meet an estimated shortfall in working capital requirement to service loans and pay salary in time.

New Delhi: Air India has slipped in its payments to key spare parts vendors, prompting many to stop supplies to the ailing airline.

According to sources, the dues of suppliers such as Airbus, Honeywell, Meggit International, Goodrich, Hamilton, Wesco Electrical remain unpaid, some for more than three quarters, leading to the shortage of parts that has resulted in a large part of the fleet being grounded.

A section of Air India pilots have threatened to stop operations if their flying allowance dues are not paid immediately.

Alleging that while the salaries and perks of other employees are paid in full albeit with a delay, the same for the pilots and cabin crew are "ignored", despite the fact that flying allowances of these two licenced categories of employees form a major chunk of their salaries.

National carrier Air India on Monday said it is yet to receive the equity infusion from the government to meet its working capital requirements after an airline’s pilots’ body claimed grounding of several aircraft due to lack of funds.

“There is no money for spares and maintenance of these aircraft. Some of them have been grounded for the last three months.

Lack of funds is leading to more problems than just non-payment of salaries at national carrier Air India. According to the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), Air India has grounded 23 per cent of its present fleet, mainly due to lack of spares and poor maintenance.

Air India Independence Day sale: On the occasion of India’s Independence Day, the national air carrier is offering an attractive discount on flight tickets across the airline’s network, Air India said on its official Twitter handle. The customers can avail full benefits of the offer by making an online booking at air carrier’s website – airindia.in. The latest discount offer is applicable till 15, 2018.

Even as Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter on Thursday criticising Air India for cancelling its scheduled flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Bengaluru from August 23 to 27, which is during the Onam festival week, thus inconveniencing passengers who had booked months in advance, the national carrier said that the cancellation has been done to utilise the aircraft for Haj pilgrims.

A Delhi-bound Air India flight from Milan had to return to the airport in Italy within 30 minutes of take-off after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit, the airline said on Saturday.

According to an airline spokesperson, the incident happened on August 2 when the passenger, and Indian citizen whose seat no. was 32C, tried to enter the cockpit in clear violation of aviation rule.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.