Parliament's Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday held discussions with representatives of various unions and associations of Air India on huge losses incurred by the national carrier and invited suggestions from them to deal with the issue.

In the meeting, chaired by PAC chief Murli Manohar Joshi, Air India unions said the merger of the erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines was a major reason for the present financial mess.

They suggested that a holding company should be formed under which Air India and Indian Airlines can be made separate entities.

Other suggestions by the associations include giving back Air India all ground handling rights. Under the present system, Air India and Air India-Singapore Airport Terminal Services (AI-SATS) have a 50:50 share. This has taken away a sizable source of income of Air India.

The Air India unions also suggested doing away with bilaterals between India and other countries. However, PAC members pointed out that this was easier said than done and questioned the benefits of this proposition.

Some of the union members rued that though most of the operations were handled by the lower levels, their suggestions were never taken into account by top brass of the national carrier.

The PAC members were in disagreements with several of the suggestions put forward by the unions. The panel also sought to know why so there were frequent strikes taking place in the airline.

Earlier, before the union representatives met the PAC, Congress MP K S Rao complained to Joshi that the members were not given agenda papers of the meetings in time.

Joshi promised to look into the matter. The panel may now send a summary of the agenda as sending all the papers to each of the 15 members is difficult.