Dues of four airlines to AAI rose over twofold since January 2020

 Vistara and IndiGo have clarified that all their dues have been cleared, while SpiceJet said its dues are well within credit limits.

Dues of four major domestic airlines -- IndiGo, SpiceJet, 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 of January 1, 2020, to Rs 2,362.36 crore as of 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.

The government had on October 8 announced that the Tata Group has won the bid to acquire Air India. The Centre is expected to hand over Air India to the Tatas in the first half of 2022.

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 of January 1, 2020, the AAI documents -- which has been accessed by PTI -- noted.

The dues of these six major domestic carriers taken together increased by 14.29 percent to Rs 2,636.34 crore by October 31, 2021, the documents added.

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 IndiGo 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 of October 31, 2021, has been duly paid within the due date."