Air India crew members go on indefinite strike over non-payment of salaries

Upset over non-payment of flying allowances for the last six months, a section of Air India cabin crew members has called for an indefinite strike from today.

Turning down flying duty, 100 crew members have not registered their attendance in office today, reports said.

Meanwhile, Air India pilots have also threatened to go on strike from April 1 over non-payment of salaries and other allowances for the past four months.

In a letter to the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) sent on March 6, the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) said the pilots would not operate flights till their dues were cleared.

While the pilots accepted that Air India was in financial distress, they did not want to endanger the lives of the passengers.

AI deployed bigger aircraft for Praful Patel's family

The Air India had deployed larger aircraft to apparently accommodate the family of the then Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on their trip to Bangalore-Maldives in April 2010, file notings disclosed by the national carrier indicate.

It had earlier been claimed that since the seven business class seats were already booked on the IC-965, flying from Bangalore to Male, Air India switched to bigger aircraft A320, with 20 business class seats, to accommodate seven members of Deshpande family -- in-laws of Patel's daughter Avni.

The passenger list now disclosed after the directives of the Central Information Commission shows that the Deshpandes were indeed on board IC-965 April 25, 2010 for Bangalore-Male and IC-966 from Male to Bangalore on April 28, 2010.

The list shows seven family members who travelled on the flights included Congress leader R V Deshpande, Radha Deshpande, Prasad Deshpande, Meghna Deshpande and Master Dhruv, in addition to Avni and her husband Prashant Deshpande.

According to the disclosure, the notings show that instructions were issued over email from Mumbai Headquarters to change the "equipment" of Bangalore Male flight on April 25 and Male Bangalore on April 28, 2010 from a smaller Airbus A319 to larger A 320.

The Air India normally plies Airbus A 319 aircraft on the route which is smaller one with eight business class seats and 114 economy class seats.

The order, a copy of which was supplied with the RTI reply said, "Due to heavy demand in J Class on Bangalore Male on April 25, 2010 and Male Bangalore on April 28, 2010, the J Class capacity is increased on the above two dates by rotation change in equipment."

AI crisis: Govt to infuse Rs 6750cr over a 10-year period

Government is considering writing off Rs 4,500 crore cash loss of Air India and infusing additional equity of Rs 6,750 crore over a 10-year period, as lenders of the beleaguered carrier on Monday broadly approved its debt recast plan.

With the go-ahead from the lenders, Civil Aviation Ministry would in the "next few days" start preparing a note for the Cabinet on both counts, official sources said.

At a two-hour meeting with officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry and the national carrier, representatives of a consortium of 14 banks led by SBI approved the debt recast plan, which had got the green signal from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week, the sources said.

This crucial meeting came a day ahead of the meeting of the Air India Board here.

The total debt of Air India, consisting of aircraft loans and working capital loans aggregate Rs 43,777.01 crore. The working capital loan is Rs 21,511.10 crore while the aircraft loan is Rs 21,412.06 crore, latest figures show.

The approval of the debt restructuring plan would ease the massive debt servicing burden of the troubled airline. The RBI had last Thursday approved the extension of its loan tenures from 10 to 15 years.

The bank representatives are understood to have sought clarifications on certain regulatory issues from the RBI, the sources said, adding that they wanted to become part of a proposed committee to be set up to monitor the implementation of Air India's overall turnaround plan.

Detailed discussions were carried out with the bankers on various aspects of Air India's precarious financial situation, apart from its balance sheet, financial position and future projects, the sources said.

After tomorrow's Board meeting, a Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee would meet. Thereafter, the Cabinet would decide on the crucial issue of infusing fresh equity of Rs 6,750 crore and writing off of cash losses of Rs 4,500 crore, they said.

Under the Rs 18,000 crore Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) proposal, the lenders are to decide on extending the tenure of Rs 11,000 crore short-term loans into long term loans of 15 years and convert Rs 7,000 crore debt into equity.

Air India also owes Rs 2,300 crore to public sector oil marketing companies, Rs 480 crore as interest on working capital loans, Rs 200 crore as interest on aircraft loans, Rs 350 crore towards employees wages, Rs 367 crore to other vendors and Rs 75 crore to airport operators.

The national carrier, under the aegis of SBI Caps, had submitted a restructuring proposal to RBI seeking its permission to extend the loan tenures, among other issues.

The national carrier has registered a loss of Rs 5,548.26 crore during 2008-09, Rs 5,552.44 crore during 2009-2010 and Rs 6,994 crore (provisional) during 2010-11.