Tender floated for sale of six Air India 737-200Fs as Air India shelves Nagpur cargo hub plans

India's Minister of Civil Aviation Ajit Singh stated (16-May-2012) a tender has been floated for sale of six of Air India's Boeing 737-200F aircraft, "because of the highly uneconomic nature of the cargo business operated by this fleet". The proposal for Air India to set up a cargo hub at Nagpur was based on the planned operation of a cargo freighter fleet. Since Air India has decided to phase out/dispose of the six 737-200Fs, the proposal to set up a cargo hub at Nagpur has been shelved for the present. He also said the re-financing of 21 A320 family aircraft for Air India was completed on 27-Sep-2011. The re-financing was through issuance of rated, unsecured, taxable, redeemable, Government of India guaranteed non-convertible debentures (NCDs) aggregating to INR55 billion (USD1.0 billion) on 27-Sep-2011. [more - original PR]