Indian Airlines reported a loss of Rs 246.75 crore (Rs 2.467 billion) for the year 2001-02 on Friday.

It has also given its nod to the proposal of its wholly owned subsidiary, Alliance Air, to dry-lease four turboprop aircraft for operations in the northeast slated to begin later this month.

The board also approved the annual accounts of 2001-02 in which it reported the loss which is almost Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million) less than the budgeted estimates.

The board also approved the dry-lease of five additional Airbus A-320 aircraft for a period of three years and decided to make efforts to have these aircraft early, IA officials said after the meeting.

The A-320s are due to be delivered between February and May next year.

The IA board took note of the Alliance Air proposal for acquiring four 50-seater ATR-42-320 planes for a period of five years, the officials said, adding this meant the holding company gave its tacit ratification to the proposal.

The ATR operations are scheduled to be launched on the Christmas day from Guwahati, where two of these planes would be stationed.

This turboprop aircraft was earlier shortlisted and evaluated by the negotiating group constituted by the government. It was considered the most appropriate for operations on the feeder routes in the northeast.

On the dry-lease of five additional A-320 planes, the board decided to make all efforts to induct these aircraft early in order to meet the growing passenger demands.

The annual accounts of the last fiscal showed that IA earned a gross revenue of Rs 3,543.23 crore (Rs 35.432 billion), which was marginally less than the estimated revenue earning of Rs 3,636 crore (Rs 36.36 billion) during 2001-02.