Air India has been forced to take up this drastic step mainly because it has not been able to pay up its dues to the fuel companies. Grounding 60 flights will be like grounding 10% of its total fleet. And Air India has to take this step right in the middle of the peak travel season and so it’ll affect them in a big way.

Air India strongly denies its crisis saying it’s done for commercial reasons only but according to some reports, it seems Air India has not been able to clear dues of about Rs.2,700 crore to the fuel companies and so the fuel companies denied to give them more credit until and unless Air India pays up its dues. Now, it seems the airline had to fly only on a pay-and-fly basis.

Air India has launched a new flight on last week of May this year which is an entirely new route which connects Kolkata to Kanpur, now the question arises as to why they are flying new routes while they curtailed other profitable flights?