NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has sought the civil aviation ministry's response on why state-run carrier Air India sold five Boeing 777s at a loss to Etihad in 2013, during the tenure of the previous United Progressive Alliance government."The CAG's query addresses two aspects - one is of selling the aircraft only after six years of operations, when they were meant to fly 25 years, and the second is on selling it at much lower that its cost price," said a civil aviation ministry official , who did not want to be identified. The initial query is part of the CAG's inquiry procedure.Etihad's purchase of five Boeing 777-200s from Air India for $350 million had been raised in media reports at the time and cited by former comptroller and auditor general Vinod Rai in his 2014 book 'Not Just an Accountant'."Why did we make purchases and within five years of the delivery of the aircraft, sell them at roughly 427 crore each to Etihad Airways after having purchased them in 2005 for 1,300 crore per aircraft?" Rai said in his book. Other sources told ET that Air India sold each plane at an estimated loss of more than 500 crore on the purchase price.Air India had said that the long-range planes were not fuel efficient and that it was losing money on its overseas flights, including to the US and Japan. Airline executives said it lost 1 crore per flight to the US. It lost money on flights to Japan even with a load of 80%.These aircraft are not much in demand and there are just a little over 60 of them in operations globally, they said.The plan had been to sell eight of the planes - the carrier is still trying to find buyers for three of them.Jeetendra Bhargava, a former executive director at Air India and a known critic of the carrier, welcomed the CAG move. He said the decision to order the planes in 2005 should also be examined. This had been part of Air India's 111-aircraft order at the time for both Boeing and Airbus planes.Etihad is currently using the aircraft to connect Abu Dhabi to destinations in the US. The Boeing 777-200-LR has a range of 17,370 km, allowing it to connect almost any city in the world from Etihad's Abu Dhabi hub.Cheaper fuel, being able to channel passengers from elsewhere to the US and the ability to fill business and first class seats could mean the planes make better business sense for Etihad, analysts said.