New Delhi, Aug 4 (IANS): The government on Tuesday said that national passenger carrier Air India will lease out 19 aircraft to replace old ones.

"The board of Air India has approved dry leasing of 19 A320 aircraft. Air India has entered into an agreement for lease of 5 A320 aircraft, of which two aircraft have already been delivered," minister of state (MoS) for civil aviation Mahesh Sharma said.

"AI has also floated a tender for leasing of 14 A320 neo aircraft. The financial bids have been obtained and bidder has been selected," the minister informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Answering another question, the minister informed that Air India, along with its subsidiary Alliance Air operates to 66 domestic and 34 international destinations.

"Air India continually monitors the market developments and conducts various route studies to plan operations to new destinations keeping in view the availability of resources and commercial viability of the operations," the minister said.

The minister added that the total number of international routes operated by Air India stood at 59.