“The plan is to make Air India stand on its own feet so that it can be sold in future,” said the official cited above.

According to sources, the dues of suppliers such as Airbus, Honeywell, Meggit International, Goodrich, Hamilton, Wesco Electrical remain unpaid, some for more than three quarters, leading to the shortage of parts that has resulted in a large part of the fleet being grounded.

Alleging that while the salaries and perks of other employees are paid in full albeit with a delay, the same for the pilots and cabin crew are "ignored", despite the fact that flying allowances of these two licenced categories of employees form a major chunk of their salaries.

“There is no money for spares and maintenance of these aircraft. Some of them have been grounded for the last three months.