Air India tops the list of airlines so far as outstanding dues to the Airport Authority of India is concerned. The carrier has outstanding dues of Rs 2,350 crore followed by Spicejet having dues of Rs 185 crore to the AAI as on September this year.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh said on Monday said in a written reply in the Parliament that some airlines have defaulted on clearance of their dues. The AAI follows up with the airlines regularly for recovery of dues according to its credit policy, he added.
As per the reply, the outstanding dues of Air India, Alliance Air, SpiceJet and Go Air (now called Go First) up to September 2021 was Rs 2,350 crore, Rs 109 crore, Rs 185 crore and Rs 56 crore, respectively.
AAI charges airlines for using air navigation services, landing, parking among other facilities.
Charging penal interest, encashment of security deposits along with resorting to legal action were other measures available with the AAI to carry out recovery of dues, the minister noted.
The AAI owns 125-odd airports across the country. AAI incurred a cumulative loss of Rs 2,948.97 crore in 2020-21. As per ministry of civil aviation data, out of 136 airports operated by AAI, as many as 107 airports were running in losses due to Covid disruption.
The data said that tier-II airports such as Chandigarh, Dehradun, Bhopal, Belgaum, Aurangabad, Delhi (Safdarjung), Imphal, Gaya, Dimapur, Dibrugarh, and Hubli recorded losses during FY19, FY20, and FY21.
