National carrier Air India, which is neck-deep in debt, is now in more trouble as GMR has refused to let Air India function until it pays off its dues.
GMR, the company that operates the Delhi and Hyderabad airports has handed Air India a fait accompli, unless the national career pays Rs 270 crore it won't be allowed to operate flights from the two airports.
According to the fine print, Air India can only fly on a cash and carry basis. GMR said it had no choice since several talks failed.
"Since October they have not paid anything. Before that they had been paying in very small amount. So the due have been mounting. What 'cash and carry' means that they have to clear the aeronautical charges that are due for the particular flight. It does not mean that they have to clear the dues. We have not stopped the flights on the ground that – 'you first clear the dues and then take off'. We will talk to them separately and negotiate how to clear the part backlog of the dues," said GMR CFO Sidharth Kapur.
Even private carrier Kingfisher airlines has been issued a similar ultimatum. But its a bigger blow to the national carrier, GMR's diktat comes right after a pilots strike that grounded the airline.
What's more, even oil PSUs had briefly stopped the supply of Aviation turbine fuel to Air India for failing to pay up the Rs 2,400 crore due to them. Air India clearly has a lot of cleaning up to do, but should travelers have been inconvenienced?
"They didn't inform me before. All of a sudden I find out this problem and I couldn't get ticket in other airlines also," said a harassed passenger.
"We had a wonderful stay in India uptill today and just trying to go home. It has become a nightmare," said a foreign passenger.
Reference:-http://ibnlive.in.com/news/air-india-in-more-trouble-as-gmr-clips-its-wings/154853-3.html
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