\'No more tickets to government agencies on credit,\' says Air India official

New Delhi: Air India (AI) has stopped issuing air tickets to government agencies on credit basis, due to non-payment of dues, said the spokesperson of the public carrier on Thursday.

“AI has stopped issuing air tickets on credit basis till the dues amount are not cleared,” said the official spokesperson.

Tickets on credit are not being issued to the government departments or agencies against whom the pending dues is Rs 10 lakh or more.

Around Rs 268 crore dues are pending with different government agencies, sources told ANI here.

According to sources, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Labour Commission have been exempted from the list of agencies to whom the tickets on credit will not be issued.

Sources said: “AI has started this exercise since the past three months to settle the dues (Rs 268 crore) from various government agencies through the official channel.”

“AI had also sent reminders to the concerned agencies several times regarding settlement of dues but these agencies failed to clear their dues due to which the AI management has decided to stop issuing tickets to them on credit,” added sources.

According to sources, AI has stopped issuing tickets on credit to “IB, CBI, ED, Defence and paramilitary forces among other agencies.”

“Air India has recovered around Rs 50 crore from the agencies in a recent month,” AI spokesperson told ANI.

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