New Delhi, August 14:  Debt-ridden Air India on Tuesday has disbursed the salary for its staff for the month of July, Air India Chairman and Managing Director said. This is the fifth consecutive month that the national carrier had failed to pay salaries to its employees on time. According to reports, the salaries have been delayed due to reasons beyond the airline’s control, it said in a communication to its staff.

Usually, Air India disburses salaries by the 30th or the 31st of every month but there was a delay in payments in March, April, May and June as well. The airline, that had not paid salaries to its employees for the month of July,  on Friday said it is taking all efforts to disburse them by the coming week.

In the notice to staff, Air India general manager for human resources was quoted by PTI saying, “We regret to inform the delay in payment of salaries for the month of July due to circumstances beyond the control of the management". “However, all efforts are being made to make the payments by next week”, he added.

On Monday, the national carrier grounded 19 planes due to lack of spare parts, leading to flight cancellations. Reports informed that this caused a huge loss to the revenue on a daily basis. The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) in a letter to Air India CMD Pradeep Singh Kharola, that almost 23 per cent of the Air India fleet is grounded for lack of spares.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 14, 2018 01:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).