AI asks govt to recover Rs 1,222-crore dues for VVIP flights

New Delhi: Cash strapped Air India has approached the government to recover Rs 1,222 crore dues towards operating VVIP and special flights over the past five years . However the government is likely to give the airline a little over Rs 800 crore for operating  three flights for VVIP and evacuation operations carried out. In the past five years, the ailing airline operated 47 VVIP flights for which the Boeing 747-400s were withdrawn from commercial services for 313 days, sources said today. The government response is understood to have come up for discussion at a meeting here of a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) headed by Cabinet Secretary AK Seth against the backdrop of the decision to infuse Rs 1,200 crore as equity in Air India. The fresh equity is expected soon. [caption id=“attachment_36882” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Government is likely to give the airline a little over Rs 800 crore for operating  three flights for VVIP and evacuation operations carried out. Reuters”]  [/caption] The airline has estimated that of the total pending amount of Rs 1,222 crore, the cost of maintaining these five planes was  Rs 866 crore, the capital expenditure including for standby aircraft was Rs 206 crore and a cash cost of Rs 150 crore. Air India was earlier paid Rs 250 crore. These four-engined planes were preferred for VVIP operations for security reasons. The national air carrier is planning to dispose off these fuel-guzzling aircraft as these would not be viable for commercial operations, the sources said. As the market price for these aircraft at present hovered around $15-20 million per piece as against $ 30 million due to a glut of similar planes in the market, the airline is waiting for the right time to sell them off, they said. The CoS is also understood to have asked the national carrier to finalise its Turnaround and Financial Restructuring Plans and present it to the Civil Aviation Ministry in the next couple of days, so that the Group of Ministers (GoM) led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee can take it up next week. PTI Want to know how Air India got into such a messy situation? Click here