Five airlines owe over Rs 664 crore to Airports Authority of India

New Delhi: Five private carriers, including the grounded Kingfisher, had to pay dues worth over Rs 664 crore to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at the end of December 2014, the government said on February 24.

The four others are Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Indigo and GoAir. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said the five airlines were to pay dues worth Rs 664.33 crore to AAI at the end of December. Out of the five, Kingfisher had the maximum dues to the tune of Rs 310 crore.

It includes penal interest of over Rs 137 crore. The carrier, which stopped operations from October 2012, had no security deposit left with the AAI. SpiceJet had dues worth Rs 236.53 crore while in the case of Indigo it was Rs 45.73 crore. According to the Minister, GoAir's dues were Rs 44.04 crore and Jet Group had to pay Rs 28.07 crore as on December 31, 2014.

To a query on whether AAI has warned the private airlines to clear the due amount or that they may be put on cash and carry, Sharma replied in the affirmative. "AAI has issued notices to the SpiceJet and Go Airlines to clear their pending dues," the Minister said. In a separate written reply, Sharma said that domestic air traffic was growing in the country.

Domestic airlines carried 67.38 million passengers last year, which was a growth of 9.7 per cent compared to 2013. Last year, Air India had the highest market share at 18.4 per cent followed by Jet Airways and SpiceJet -- both of their share stood at 17.4 per cent.