This Mumbai building earns half of the money Air India needs for salaries

As debt-ridden Air India continues its struggle to stay afloat, the national carrier's iconic 23-storey building on Marine Drive in Mumbai is providing much-needed revenue to keep it operational. Air India tower that also boasts of having India's first structure with an escalator earns an annual rent of Rs 100 crore, nearly half of the total monthly salary bill of Air India's 21,000 employees.

The airlines shifted to its Delhi headquarters five years ago and since then all floors of the Marine Drive building have been leased out barring a portion of the ground floor, which fell vacant in January this year, when the Bharatiya Mahila Bank moved out of the premises. Air India has retained the first, second, and third floors, and is looking for a tenant on the ground floor, after the Bharatiya Mahila Bank vacated the premises in January. The national carrier also retains the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd floors.

Though government failed to find a single bidder for the debt-ridden national carrier, each floor of the 23-floors Air India tower is a cash cow for the company. Each floor earns at least Rs 35 lakh for the Airline.


In a major setback, the government failed to get even a single proposal for buying majority stake in national carrier Air India. The government had called bids for a 76 per cent stake in Air India, which includes 100 per cent stake in low-fare international subsidiary Air India Express and 50% holding in ground handling company AISATS.

The government had extended the deadline for bids to May 31from May 14 and had targeted completion of the sale by December this year.

The airline has a total debt burden of Rs 50,000 crore at the end of March 2017. It is still staying afloat on over Rs 30,000-crore bailout package extended by the UPA government in 2012.