Indian Airlines owes 300 cr as arrears to AAI: Govt

These details were tabled before the Rajya Sabha by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel in reply to a question. Among the national carriers, AI owes Rs 192 crores and Alliance Air nearly Rs 30 crore respectively to AAI as arrears payable on account of landing, parking charges.

Patel added in the reply that among private domestic carriers, Indigo owed Rs 3.04 crore and Jet Airways was yet to pay nearly Rs 30 crores for the services. Among the foreign airlines, Air Arabia owes Rs 2.55 crore to the regulatory authority, while Air France has to pay Rs 1.48 crore.

Replying to other questions on the aviation sector, the minister said in the month of July 2010, as many as 292 flights were cancelled due to technical reasons, 133 due to weather conditions.

In his reply to the Upper House, Patel said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has issued a Civil Aviation Requirements section 3 which provides for compensation and facilities to passengers in case of denied boarding, cancellations and delays.

Answering a related query, he said in September, a total of 346 passengers were affected due to denied boarding and the maximum was by Kingfisher airlines with 143 such instances, followed by Jet airways and JetLite (103) and 100 by NACIL.