Air india: more bad news

India's debt-ridden state-run airline Air India was hit by new bad publicity on Tuesday after the Times of India said that a commander of a plane on the airline's Mumbai-New York route reported for duty under the influence...

"One of the four pilots of the flight failed the breathalyzer test conducted by the airline doctors as part of pre-flight checks," an unnamed source told the newspaper.

The pilot was replaced, but flight AI-141 scheduled to leave on Monday at 12.45am (0615 AEDT) was delayed by 45 minutes.

In a separate incident, an Air India pilot and a co-pilot were arrested earlier this month after being accused of molesting an air hostess in the cockpit that sparked a scuffle with other crew members.

When asked about the latest report, Air India spokesman Jitender Bhargava said: "I cannot confirm anything. A colleague of mine is looking into the report."

Air India lost a billion US dollars in the financial year to March 2009.

Source: AFP