Financially challenged national flag carrier Air India has grounded up to 19 aircraft because it doesn’t have the spare parts.
That is causing a big loss of revenue and flight cancellations, says the Indian Commercial Pilots Association.
The ICPA made the claim in a letter to Air India chairman and managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola.
The grounded planes include up to nine Airbus A321s.
"Almost 23% of the Air India fleet is grounded for lack of spares. To put this into perspective, aircraft worth approximately US$3.6 billion are lying idle in the hangars," the ICPA wrote.
"The Airbus A319 fleet situation is only slightly better. Of the 22 Airbus A319 aircraft in the fleet, four aircraft or 18 per cent of the fleet is not available for operations. The Airbus A320 fleet fares better but only because it currently consists of a significant number of newly acquired Neo planes," it claimed.
"Additionally, a significant number of flights are getting cancelled/rescheduled on a daily basis. There are also aircraft fleet swaps which result in last minute change of inventory resulting in non-optimal revenue management and utilisation."
The airline has not responded publically to the claims.
Air India is still awaiting another state hand out after the government received no serious bidders for a purchase of the airline.
The government decided to hold off on privatisation and will continue to bail out the carrier until market conditions improve.
