Six airlines owe AAI Rs 2,636 cr

New Delhi: Dues of four major domestic airlines -- IndiGo, Spice- Jet, Go First and AirAsia India -- to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) more than doubled between January 2020 and October 2021, according to internal AAI documents.

Air India, however, continues to be the domestic carrier with the highest amount of dues to the AAI. As per the documents, Air India’s dues to the AAI have increased from Rs 2,183.71 crore as on January 1, 2020, to Rs 2,362.36 crore as on October 31, 2021.

An airline has to pay various charges like air navigation, landing, parking etc to the AAI to use facilities at any of its more than 100 airports. Both Air India and the AAI work under the Civil Aviation Ministry.

India has six major domestic carriers, IndiGo, SpiceJet, GoAir, AirAsia India, Air India and Vistara, which owed the AAI a total of Rs 2,306.59 crore as on January 1, 2020, the AAI documents -- which has been accessed by PTI -- noted. Their dues have increased by 14.29 per cent to Rs 2,636.34 crore by October 31, 2021, as per the documents.

Vistara and IndiGo have clarified that all their dues have been cleared, while SpiceJet said its dues are well within credit limits. India’s largest carrier Indi- Go owed Rs 80.69 crore as in October 2021, as against Rs 33.21 crore in January 2021, they mentioned.

Asked about this, an IndiGo spokesperson told PTI: “As per our records, all outstanding to the AAI as on October 31, 2021, has been duly paid within the due date.”

SpiceJet’s dues with the AAI increased from Rs 69.93 crore in January 2020 to Rs 146.75 crore as on October 2021, the AAI documents noted. However, a SpiceJet spokesperson said the total dues (of the airline) to AAI as on October 31, 2021 stood at Rs 122.69 crore.

SpiceJet has provided a bank guarantee of over Rs 150 crore, the spokesperson added.

Go First, which was previously known as GoAir, saw its dues to the AAI increase from Rs 15.62 crore in January 2020 to Rs 39.06 crore in October 2021, the AAI documents showed.

AirAsia India’s dues to the AAI increased from Rs 1.47 crore in January 2020 to Rs 3.58 crore in October 2021, the documents noted.

Vistara’s dues to the AAI increased from 2.65 crore in January 2020 to Rs 3.9 crore in October 2021. -(PTI)