Private airlines owe Rs 526 crore to AAI

Private airlines, including those who have closed down, have a due of Rs 526 crore towards the state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI) till December last year.

"The total traffic and non-traffic dues of private airlines as on December 31, 2012 amounts to Rs 526.75 crores to the AAI," K C Venugopal, Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation informed Lok Sabha today.

Of these, Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines has a due of Rs 295.50 crore, Jet Airways has Rs 82.17 crore while its subsidiary JetLite has Rs 27.62 crores.

Kalanithi Maran-owned SpiceJet owes Rs 58.77 crore, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (IndiGo) owes Rs 9.26 crore and GoAir has a due of Rs 8.55 crore to the AAI, he said.

Among the airlines, which have shut down, East West Airways owes Rs 14.15 crore, Paramount Rs 4.80 crore, Mesco Airlines Rs 2.49 crore, Skyline NEPC Damania Airlines Rs 1.35 crore, NEPC Airlines Rs 3.04 crore while others owe Rs 19.05 crore to the AAI.

The Minister said dues from privately-owned airlines are monitored on regular basis and in case of delay, the AAI issues notices to the airlines to settle the dues.

The AAI also charges penal interest on the delay in the settlement of these bills. In cases where delay persists, besides encashing the security amount the defaulting airlines are put on cash and carry basis, he added.

While replying to a separate question, Venugopal said 60 incidents of airprox, when aircraft come close to each other breaching their required separation distance, were reported in the country since 2010.

In 2010 and 2011, 21 such incidents were reported, he said. Last year there was a drop in airprox incidents and only 15 were reported but this year till January three incidents have been reported, he added.