If you are flying Air India, be extra cautious while packing those suitcases. Because from today, June 11, you have to shell out more for extra baggage while flying with the national carrier.

Air India has hiked the charges for extra luggage from Rs 400 to Rs 500. However, these revise changes will not be applicable in Air India's regional arm, Alliance Air.

Cash-crunched Air India, which delayed salaries for three months in a row, has sought an additional funding of around Rs 2,000 crore from the government to tide over the situation, a senior company official said.

The airline is expecting these funds next month when the government moves the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2018-19 in the Monsoon session of Parliament, the official said.

State-run Air India on Wednesday said it has revised the excess baggage charges by Rs 100 per kg to Rs 500 for domestic travels from June 11.

As of now, the airline charges Rs 400 per kg for excess baggage.

When Narendra Modi took office as India's prime minister just over four years ago, a top priority for the economic reformers who had supported his candidacy was the privatization of India's incredibly inefficient public sector. Among their biggest targets was the state-run airline, Air India -- a clunky, loss-making behemoth that has long been rendered irrelevant by buzzy domestic competitors. I would personally have cheered that outcome:

After the first attempt at selling state-owned Air India to private entities failed as the expressions of interest (EoIs) called for by the government received zero bids, aviation research and consultancy firm Capa (India) says the government should divest 100% equity in the airline and not retain a 24% share in the ailing airline.

What went wrong? Who messed it up? The day after Air India disinvestment failed to take off, government officials across ministries and departments spent hours trying to find an answer to these questions. Many of those spearheading the sale put the blame on the dealmakers and advisors for failing to attract potential bidders, others pointed at the industry for the fiasco.

India’s high-profile offer to sell a stake in Air India failed to attract a single bidder by the Thursday deadline, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target for offloading stakes in government-held firms. The no-show by buyers in a booming aviation market underlines the challenges the government faces in fixing the debt-laden national carrier, and was a setback for Modi’s credentials as a reformer willing to step away from running money-losing businesses.

With just a day left for submitting the expressions of interest (EoI) for Air India, civil aviation secretary RN Choubey on Wednesday said that so far they have not received even a single bid. After having extended the last day for submitting the EoIs from May 14 to May 31, the secretary also said that any further extension would not be given. However, Choubey still exuded confidence, adding that he expects bids to come at the last hour.

World’s cheapest airlines: Even as the low-cost carriers IndiGo and Air India Express make it to the the top five cheapest airlines in the world in providing international connectivity, other Indian carriers Spicejet, Vistara, Go Air etc too find a mention in the domestic list. Most notably, Air India Express, the wholly-owned subsidiary of state-run carrier Air India has been ranked second and the budget carrier IndiGo placed at fifth position in a Global Flight Pricing Report prepared by Melbourne-based Rome2rio — a multimodal travel planning site.

The government is in dilemma over Air India privatisation and is rightly re-tweaking the details after couple of bidders pulled out. However, at the same time the government is being prudent as aviation secretary R N Choubey now says that the national carrier may not be sold if they do not get the right price.

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