The government has not yet paid a single penny to the airline to charter these flights for the prime minister and president’s overseas visits.
Air India (AI) wants the government to pay for its aircraft used for the prime minister and president’s overseas visits.
Reeling under debt and fed up with the increasing cost of operating and maintaining special planes, AI plans to seek payments to the tune of Rs700-800 crore from the government for two Boeing 747-400 aircraft in its fleet.
The government has not yet paid a single penny to the airline to charter these flights for the prime minister and president’s overseas visits.
It will be the first time AI would make the demand for money for the two aircraft. The airline has been requesting the government for equity infusion and sees no reason why it should not make a demand to bring down operational expenses incurred while ferrying top administrators.
“There are three such aircraft with Air India, but we are right now talking about payments for only two of them. These have to be kept exclusively for VIP movement and it costs a lot to operate and maintain them. We need to maintain a separate cabin crew, separate set of pilots, need to train them and spend on engineering of these aircraft. These aircraft do not generate any revenue since they are not put to commercial use. So, it is high time the government pays for these services,” an airline source said.
He said the two Boeing 747-400 are not fit for commercial use because of high fuel costs and the fact that the aircraft are very old compared to the others. The money claimed from the government would be partly used to offset aircraft usage expenses borne by the airline in the past. Some amount would be used for the aircraft and crew maintenance.
“We are taking the proposal to the finance ministry for consideration. If we have to maximise revenue generation, the government also needs to do its bit to help us... after all, they use this facility exclusively,” the spokesman said. The government, however, has yet to decide whether it would pay the amount to Air India.
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