<p class="title">Debt-crippled national airline is focused solely on daily survival and keeping its flights in the air, a spokesman said Thursday, after the government warned it would have to shut down unless a buyer was found.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Air India owes more than $8.6 billion and has struggled to pay salaries and buy fuel, with losses mounting following earlier privatisation attempts.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The company is unable to pay its debts and its outlook is "gloomy", spokesman Dhananjay Kumar said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We are concentrating on day-to-day operations and not focusing on the future," he told AFP.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Whatever resources we have, we are trying to use them in an optimum manner and trying to run our flights."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Wednesday that the airline would "have to close down if it is not privatised", adding the government would soon invite takeover bids.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The company's debt mountain may be hived off in a bid to make it more attractive to potential buyers, according to media reports.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Kumar said Air India was not yet in discussion with the ministry over any shutdown plans.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But in more bad news for the beleaguered airline, a planned sale of the Air India headquarters in Mumbai may be blocked after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party was ousted from power in Maharashtra state, local media reported.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The previous state government had agreed to buy the building to help clear the airline's debts.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Founded in 1932 and formerly India's monopoly airline, the company was once known affectionately as the "Maharaja of the skies".</p>.<p class="bodytext">But it has been haemorrhaging money for more than a decade and has lost market share to low-cost rivals in one of the world's fastest-growing but most competitive airline markets.</p>.<p class="bodytext">State-run oil companies halted fuel supplies to Air India in August over delinquent payments. The firms agreed to lift the suspension the next month after talks brokered by the government.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The local aviation sector has been stuck in a slump since the collapse of Jet Airways earlier this year.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Successive governments spent billions of dollars to keep Air India operating before the first failed bid to sell off the airline last year.</p>
<p class="title">Debt-crippled national airline is focused solely on daily survival and keeping its flights in the air, a spokesman said Thursday, after the government warned it would have to shut down unless a buyer was found.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Air India owes more than $8.6 billion and has struggled to pay salaries and buy fuel, with losses mounting following earlier privatisation attempts.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The company is unable to pay its debts and its outlook is "gloomy", spokesman Dhananjay Kumar said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We are concentrating on day-to-day operations and not focusing on the future," he told AFP.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Whatever resources we have, we are trying to use them in an optimum manner and trying to run our flights."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Wednesday that the airline would "have to close down if it is not privatised", adding the government would soon invite takeover bids.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The company's debt mountain may be hived off in a bid to make it more attractive to potential buyers, according to media reports.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Kumar said Air India was not yet in discussion with the ministry over any shutdown plans.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But in more bad news for the beleaguered airline, a planned sale of the Air India headquarters in Mumbai may be blocked after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party was ousted from power in Maharashtra state, local media reported.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The previous state government had agreed to buy the building to help clear the airline's debts.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Founded in 1932 and formerly India's monopoly airline, the company was once known affectionately as the "Maharaja of the skies".</p>.<p class="bodytext">But it has been haemorrhaging money for more than a decade and has lost market share to low-cost rivals in one of the world's fastest-growing but most competitive airline markets.</p>.<p class="bodytext">State-run oil companies halted fuel supplies to Air India in August over delinquent payments. The firms agreed to lift the suspension the next month after talks brokered by the government.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The local aviation sector has been stuck in a slump since the collapse of Jet Airways earlier this year.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Successive governments spent billions of dollars to keep Air India operating before the first failed bid to sell off the airline last year.</p>