Over 50 per cent of all traffic to Jeddah consists pilgrims headed to Mecca and Medina.
Apart from the Adani group, the Tata group, the Hinduja group, Indigo and a New York-based fund, Interups, are expected to submit EoIs.
Air India, IndiGo, and SpiceJet have suspended flights to China and Hong Kong.
The new flights come against the backdrop of the Indian government's move to boost air connectivity with Central Asia and tap the interest of Russian investors in India.
A Russian fund submitted its interest to the resolution professional on February 14 and also hired a consultancy firm to help them with the bidding process.
The new service by American Airlines will provide connectivity to tech hubs in both the countries.
Curtailment of flights between India and China will help Air India and other airlines to boost their seat occupancy and market share.
A loss of revenue from liquor sales will have to be compensated through increased landing and parking charges on airlines, which, in turn, will pass on the cost to flyers.
South America-based Synergy Group, one of the suitors, has said slots at London's Heathrow airport are critical to the airline's operations and will decide on participating in the resolution only if it gets clarity. It also wants to form a new company with its assets, employees, and operating permit but minus all liabilities.
With over 700,000 annual passengers and 21 per cent market share Air India is the largest carrier on India-United Kingdom routes.
DGCA has also permitted the airline to deploy newly-inducted planes for capacity expansion.
Improvement in load factors, coupled with an increase in seat capacity after Jet's slots were allotted to low-cost airlines, has resulted in an increase in daily passenger traffic.
Airports levy charges such as FTC, infrastructure charge, and into-plane charges on sale of jet fuel. The levy is passed through to airlines, pushing up costs.
The airline is strengthening its flight operations department to make this happen.
Brent crude oil price surged 4 per cent on Friday, following tension between Iran and the US. Airlines, however, have been unable to pass on the price increase to customers due to the soft demand.
The weakness in the stock was because of inspections by the American drug regulator at its Halol plant in Gujarat which resulted in eight observations, as well as a downward revision of speciality drug payoffs.
Foreign tourists are postponing their India holiday and there have been some cancellations as well, with trips to the North-East seeing the most adverse impact.
Air India is seeking government approval to raise a Rs 2,000 crore loan and refinance $819 million aircraft debt, which would help tide over the financial crisis.
About 1.2 crore passengers flew in November compared to 1.1 crore in October. While the industry opinion is divided over the sustainability of unprofitable growth, which is primarily led by low fare, some described it as the resilience of air travel against the economic slump.
The selection gives a boost to the US engine firm, which lost out to rival manufacturer CFM International for IndiGo's 280 aircraft engine order in June.
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