The airline initiated an internal probe after Venugopal, who was on board a Delhi-Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram flight on January 4, saw 23 vacant seats inside while a Kerala minister was denied a seat on grounds of 'non-availability'.
Air India and its inefficiencies were among the top topics of discussion on Day One of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas being held in Kochi.
Four Air India pilots have resigned and five have taken voluntary retirement while 10 pilots of Air India Express have left their job, seven last year and three this year, since January 2012, Minister of State for Civil Aviation K C Venugopal said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
Only 14 routes of the 202 on which the airline operates, meet the total cost of operations.
The government has begun consultations on relaxing the eligibility criteria for allowing Indian carriers to fly abroad, Rajya Sabha was informed.
A total of 406 aircraft are in the fleet of eight scheduled airlines in the country, most of which were suffering losses, Lok Sabha was informed.
Three bills were introduced in Lok Sabha on Tuesday amid uproar with members from Left parties trooping into the Well to protest against rising prices of onion while other members raised the Telangana issue.
Jet Airways, IndiGo and GoAir achieved operating profits of Rs 122.6 crore (Rs 1.22 billion), Rs 795.8 crore (Rs 7.95 billion) and Rs 85.1 crore (Rs 851 million) respectively during the same period, Minister of State for Civil Aviation K C Venugopal said in reply to a question.
The government which is proceeding with privatising six airports including those at Kolkata and Chennai, intends to give away 14 more to private parties for operation and development during the 12th Plan period, Rajya Sabha was told on Tuesday.
All these problems were fixed by the airline's and Boeing's technical teams, Minister of State for Civil Aviation K C Venugopal said in reply to a question.
The Civil Aviation Authority of India Bill 2013, which was introduced by Minister of State for Civil Aviation K C Venugopal, would provide the CAA full operational and financial autonomy to regulate all issues concerning civil aviation safety and protect the interests of consumers in a fast-changing aviation scenario.
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