Naresh Goyal in New Delhi on Monday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, Oct. 20: Domestic airlines have sought the government’s help to restructure the terms of their arrears payments to oil companies and access loans from banks.

Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal today met finance minister P. Chidambaram in a bid to get the finance ministry’s support in the recast of the dues.

Jet has an outstanding fuel bill of Rs 890 crore and Kingfisher Airlines, Rs 110 crore. State-run Air India owes over Rs 600 crore.

Jet and Kingfisher have also asked for a Rs 5,000-crore soft loan from banks for the airline business, hit by rising costs and declining passengers. Airlines are complaining that banks have virtually stopped lending to them.

Ruling out the possibility of a bailout, officials said the government could encourage banks to give loans.

Goyal has also demanded lower state taxes on jet fuel. According to the officials, the government has not been able to make much of a headway in its bid to get states lower the tax on the fuel.

The airline industry had lost about Rs 4,000 crore in 2007-08 and was expected to double its losses to Rs 8,000 crore during the current fiscal, according to the civil aviation ministry.

Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya today hinted at more job cuts in the aviation industry if the slump in the market continued.

“If the slump in the market continues, the number of flights will have to go down. When we ground the planes, it will have effects,” Mallya, a Rajya Sabha member, told reporters outside Parliament.