Air India to monetise commercial assets

Mumbai: Thrashing around looking for ways to generate revenues in order to cope with a mounting pile of debt and operational costs, badly struggling carrier Air India (AI) is now looking at selling or leasing out properties owned by it in the country or around the world.

Saddled with a huge pile of debt, estimated to be at Rs40,000 crore, the carrier has properties in Europe, the UK, Tokyo, Hong Kong, the US and at home.

At home, it has assets in places like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Coimbatore, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

The carrier has recently formed a property committee headed by the airline's CMD, Arvind Jadhav, an independent director, and Prashant Sukul, joint secretary, ministry of civil aviation which is tasked with the objective to monetise commercial assets.

S Venkat, executive director, (finance) and company secretary at National Aviation Company of India (NACIL) that runs AI said, ''Our property committee is vetting proposals for either leasing or selling off properties across the globe.''

According to reports, the airline has around 5 lakh square feet of office space across the globe which could be monetised. The airline wants to either sell off these properties or lease space for commercial gain.