Star Alliance member Air India reportedly hasn’t been paying its jet fuel bills and now can’t gas up at six airports in the country.
Fuel supply to Air India has been halted since Thursday evening at six cities across the country including Mohali in the north, Vishakapatnam and Kochi in the south, Pune in the west and Ranchi and Patna in the east, one of the sources said.
Air India Boeing 777-200LR, Copyright: boarding1now / 123RF Stock Photo
The airline has been loading enough fuel for return trips on domestic flights to these airports where possible, and says they’ve made an $8.6 million payment towards their overdue debt.
The corrupt state-owned airline has been working on privatization, but there haven’t been any takers. The government is now considering selling off the airline while holding onto its debt.
The airline asked employees to stop upgrading their friends and to save money starting make flight attendants share hotel rooms. But an airline where even the director of flight safety tries to fly after drinking and the company art has gone missing has problems.
Maybe this is why United is going to make its San Francisco – Delhi flight year-round and why American has been talking more internally about flying to India most likely from Dallas Fort-Worth.
Need SFO to BLR and BOM. Would fly any airline except Air India.
Probably the corrupt state-owned airline has no money because the corrupt Indian government is too busy spending gobs of money ruining the lives of Kashmiris to appease the Hindu nationalists.