GMR Group seeks to put Air India on cash-and-carry basis

03 Sep 2011

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New Delhi: GMR group companies Delhi International Airport (DIAL) and Hyderabad International Airport (HIAL) have informed the ministry for civil aviation that they would like to put Air India on cash-and-carry basis as the state-owned airline had failed to pay airport charges on time over the last several months.

The company says Air India owes about R350 crore to the two airports.

The airport operators were compelled to extend credit to the near-bankrupt airline on instructions from the ministry.

''We have informed the aviation ministry that we cannot now further give credit to Air India. We share revenue with Airports Authority of India (AAI) on the basis of projections and not on cash received. So, we have already shared almost Rs170 crore with AAI by market borrowings even as if we have not received payment from AI,'' said a GMR official.

According to reports, GMR group chairman GM Rao met prime minister Manmohan Singh last week to resolve the issue and proposed that in absence of payment from Air India, DIAL should be allowed to share revenue with AAI on cash basis.

The suggestion has not gone down well with the bungling bureaucrats at the ministry who claim this would need amendments to OMDA (operation, management and development agreement) as revenue sharing terms would have to be altered. This, they claim, is not feasible.

Meanwhile, Air India officials dispute the claim made about the total amount of dues, which they say is actually Rs150 crore.

Air India continues to lurch from one crisis to another.

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