When Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel wrote about a week ago to unions of the National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL), the firm formed after the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines, that the state-run carrier had a “long and challenging journey ahead,” he was grossly understating the financial turbulence that’s gripped the country’s largest airline.

Consider this: NACIL is so deeply mired in the red that its losses have more than tripled during 2007-08 to their highest ever, Rs 2,144 crore, from Rs 688 crore barely a year ago, The Sunday Express has found. Those numbers, however, are unaudited and the figure could top Rs 2,700 crore when audited and presented in September, sources said.

The two airlines have together borrowed Rs 8,550 crore so far as working capital or funds needed to keep them going, according to a financial status document finalised at the end of April and obtained by this newspaper.

This almost exhausts the existing limits for working capital borrowings approved by the board and sanctioned by the banks, the document says. The amount is also more than the total estimated value of the immovable properties of the two airlines which is between Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 8,500 crore.

According to estimates made in the middle of April, the airlines jointly face a daily working capital deficit of Rs 8.2 crore and insiders say this could well have crossed Rs 10 crore today due to the spike in global oil prices since.

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