An internal committee of Air India is preparing a list of former employees who are suspected of siphoning-off artwork, an official with the airline said on Friday.

According to the official, who did not wished to be named, the airline will "not take any action if its artworks are returned", however an internal committee has started to prepare a list of missing artwork and suspected former employees who might have them in their possession.

Air India’s net loss after tax narrowed to Rs 3,643 crore and operating profit rose to Rs 300 crore in the last financial year, the government said today. The airline saw its total revenue, including exceptional and extraordinary items, increase to Rs 22,146 crore in 2016 -17 period, as per provisional numbers provided by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha to the Rajya Sabha. The total revenue stood at Rs 20,524.56 crore in the year-ago period.

Air India is drawing up a proposal to offer voluntary buyouts to just over a third of its 40,000 employees, a senior company official said, one of the largest such offers in India's state sector, as the carrier slashes costs ahead of a 2018 sale.

The official, who could not be named as the plans are not public, said the state-owned airline had also put fleet expansion on hold, scrapping a proposal to lease eight Boeing 787 wide-body aircraft. Air India's board approved the proposal in April but nothing further had been done.

India is considering selling state-owned Air India in parts to make it attractive to potential buyers, as it reviews options to divest the loss-making flagship carrier, several government officials familiar with the situation said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet gave the go-ahead last month for the government to try to sell the airline, after successive governments spent billions of dollars in recent years to keep the airline going.

Air India today said it plans to expand its base in the US by adding Los Angeles and Houston as new destinations, a day after launching the state-carrier’s first direct flight from Delhi to Washington DC. “We are looking at connecting two more cities -– Los Angeles and either Houston or Dallas,” Air India Chairman and MD Ashwani Lohani said at an event to celebrate the launch of the direct non-stop flight yesterday between the capitals of the two largest democracies of the world.

NEW DELHI: State-owned Air India today launched its first flight to Washington DC from New Delhi, thereby adding its fifth destination in the US.

Air India has deployed its 238-seater Boeing 777-200 LR aircraft to cater to the new direct service to the US. The plane offers eight seats in first class, 35 in business and 195 in economy class.

The Air Conditioning (AC) system in a New Delhi-bound Air India flight AI-880, an Airbus 320 which took off from West Bengal's Bagdogra malfunctioned on Saturday, leaving passengers gasping for breath.

In a video that has gone viral, the livid passengers can be seen fanning themselves and complaining to the staff onboard about the malfunction, but to no avail.

InterGlobe Aviation, which runs the low-cost carrier IndiGo, has expressed an interest in acquiring the loss-making Air India. Civil aviation secretary RN Choubey said on Thursday that the company has written a letter to the ministry. The Cabinet had on Thursday has given an in-principle nod to the disinvestment of Air India. The final modalities of the divestment, including the quantum of stake sale, would be formalised by a group of ministers headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley.

National carrier Air India has warned its former employees of severe consequences such as withdrawal of post-retirement benefits if they speak out against the airline on social media. The Cabinet has given an in-principle approval for the disinvestment of debt-laden Air India (AI). Its employees, including those retired, are staring at an uncertain future. As many as seven unions have written to the government threatening mass protests if the airline is privatised.

NEW DELHI: Air India's subsidiary Alliance Air today announced the launch of new flights connecting Lucknow with the capitals of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The move is aimed at developing Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, as a regional hub of Alliance Air, an airline official said.

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