Air India officials have refused to make public who benefits from free travel on the airline despite its request for funds from the government.
The airline says revealing details of people enjoying free travel would be detrimental to its commercial interests.
"Disclosure of names of persons to whom such tickets were issued would be detrimental to the commercial interests of the company considering the fierce level of competition that is existing in the Aviation industry," the loss making national carrier said in an RTI reply.
The airline also refused to give total number of passengers which availed free tickets during the period citing section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act which exempts disclosure of information which may affect commercial position of an entity.
"Air India like any other airline in the Aviation Industry, issues complimentary tickets in its commercial interest to encourage and promote travel on its flights and to help in image building of the Company," the reply.