Air India owed Rs 822 crore on charter flights of VIPs (VVIPs), at the mouth of disinvestment due to the cash crisis. Apart from this, this information has been made available in response to an RTI. According to information made available to retired Commodore Lokesh Batra on Wednesday, there was an outstanding of Rs 822 crore on charter flights of VIPs as of 30 November 2019. Apart from this, Commodore Batra had sought the latest information about the outstanding amount of Air India under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
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Apart from this, Rs 9.67 crore is owed for the use of special aircraft in relief and rescue operations and Rs 12.65 crore towards the flights of foreign guests. Air India issues special aircraft to the President, Vice President and Prime Minister under VVIP charter flights. Their bills are paid by the ministries. Also, it is noteworthy that the Civil Aviation Ministry had stated in a reply on 5 December 2019 that Air India is at a loss of Rs 8,556.35 crore (provisional). On February 5, 2020, the ministry cited Air India's losses as reasons behind the high-interest rate debt, competition (especially from low-value passengers), the weakening of the Indian rupee, affecting the exchange rate and high Operating costs are a big reason.
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VVIP charter flight is pending not only for the travel of government officials but also for paying large amounts of Air India. The airline owed Rs 526.14 crore as on March 31, 2019, on account of tickets borrowed by government officials. Out of these, payment of bills of over Rs 236 crore has been pending for more than three years. Due to this, the airlines have registered about Rs 281.82 crore under the head 'No hope of recovery'.