Air India denies rumours of bankruptcy

Tel Aviv: Allaying fears among growing number of Israelis using Air India flights to Delhi, India's national carrier has rubbished as "baseless" the claims in certain sections of the Israeli media that it is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Some Israeli media outlets recently reported that Air India was trapped in huge debt running over a billion and may collapse soon.

They also advised Israeli passengers, who have booked their tickets of the Indian carrier, to take necessary steps to recover their money.

"Air India (AI) strongly refutes the canards being spread by a section of the media in Israel and a few web/online portals about the airline being on the verge of collapse.

This is totally baseless, false and hatched to malign the image of the organisation and thwart its rising graph by vested interest," according to a statement issued by AI's Tel Aviv office.

"We would like to clear the air that, contrary to these speculation, Air India is growing from strength to strength and has, in fact, been standing by passengers in distress left stranded by airlines abruptly shutting down," it said.

"It is requested that any such attempt to create confusion and tarnish the credibility of Air India be rejected outright," the statement said.