New Delhi, May 05: There is no proposal from Indian Airlines to sell its assets for meeting daily expenses and neither has it sold any for the purpose, Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said today. "Indian Airlines has not sold any assets to meet its day-to-day expenses ..... There is no proposal from IA to sell its assets to meet such expenses," he said during Question Hour in Lok Sabha.
Most of the losses of the airline, he said, could be attributed to rise in input costs like aviation turbine fuel, insurance, landing and navigational charges which were beyond IA's control. These losses were further aggravated due to IA's operations on unviable routes in order to discharge its social obligations, which also prevents the carrier from deploying more aircraft on trunk routes, Hussain said. The minister said the prices of ATF marginally declined from an all-time high of Rs 25,200 per kilolitre in March to Rs 24,200 last month and added that ATF cost constituted about 30 per cent of the airline's operating costs. Bureau Report