The new owners of Air India will have to retain all the employees of the national carrier for at least one year post which they can offer a VRS. The gratuity, pension fund and post retirement medical benefits of existing and past employees too would be honoured by the new owner, civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal said. Tata Sons has emerged as the winning bidder for Air India with the government accepting its Rs 18,000 crore offer to acquire 100 per cent of the debt-laden state-run carrier.
Nearly 80 domestic and international flights received bomb threats in less than 24 hours that later turned out to be hoaxes, keeping thousands of passengers and security agencies on tenterhooks.
The flight AI 1946 landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here at around 11.40 pm.
India's largest public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) will support Tata group's bid for soon-to-be-privatised Air India by subscribing to Tata Sons debentures or funding the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by Tata Sons for the acquisition. Bankers said the credit rating of Tata group's holding company is "AAA" signifying high safety and a combination of Air India with its existing airline businesses would make it a formidable player - leading to a duopoly market with IndiGo. It would also open many business opportunities, including in the retail segment, an official said.
The government on Monday issued a letter of intent (LoI) confirming the sale of its 100 per cent stake in loss-making Air India to Tata Group for Rs 18,000 crore, a senior official said. Last week, the government had accepted an offer by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of salt-to-software conglomerate, to pay Rs 2,700 crore in cash and takeover Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt. Subsequent to that, an LoI has now been issued to Tata confirming the government's willingness to sell its 100 per cent stake in the airline.
A Mumbai court has extended the police remand of the boyfriend of an Air India pilot, who allegedly committed suicide, until December 2. The police are seeking to retrieve deleted WhatsApp chats between the two from the boyfriend's mobile phone, believing the chats could contain crucial information about the pilot's death. The boyfriend, Aditya Pandit, was arrested and charged with abetment of suicide after the pilot, Srishti Tuli, was found dead in her apartment on Monday.
The industry is hoping the Tatas deepen their dive and offer two stable airlines -- a Vistara merged into Air India servicing the international routes, and an AirAsia India merged with Air India Express that competes with the low fare airlines in India and offers destinations within five hours, says Anjuli Bhargava.
Tata Sons has started the process of due diligence of state-owned Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express. Sources said the group has appointed Bain and Company and Seabury Group for this purpose. Once complete, a financial bid will be submitted and a deal to take over the airline is likely to fructify by end of this year or even earlier, people involved in the process said. Simultaneously, the group has brought in veterans in the aviation business from Delta and United Airlines to prepare a plan for post-merger integration of Air India with its existing airline ventures. Tata Sons operates Vistara - a 51:49 percent joint venture with Singapore Airlines and Air Asia India, in which Tatas hold 83.67 per cent stakes.
The Mumbai police have issued a notice to a teenage boy, his father and another person from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh to join questioning in connection with bomb threats posted on social media targeting three flights, officials said.
This will be the first full-year Budget of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government since it came to power for a third consecutive term in July last year.
The three state-owned oil companies have decided to defer snapping fuel supplies to Air India. The airline owes the three firms over Rs 5,000 crore in past fuel bills.
The sources in the know said around 7 flights each of IndiGo, Vistara and SpiceJet got the threats while 6 flights of Air India received the threats.
Tokyo Olympics medal prospect Manu Bhaker has demanded action against two Air India employees for allegedly 'harassing' and 'insulting' her while the ace shooter tried to board a flight to Bhopal from Delhi.
A 35-year-old man who was allegedly behind a series of hoax bomb threats to airports and railway stations across the country has been arrested after he presented himself before Nagpur Police, an official said on Friday.
In a bid to resurrect Air India privatisation, the government is planning to give flexibility to potential investors to decide on the humongous debt with the national carrier, a top official has said. The flexibility to potential investors on the quantum of the Rs 60,074 crore debt that they want to absorb will replace the current condition of the buyer taking over more than a third of the debt and transferring the rest to a special purpose vehicle, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said.
Re-rating of Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Container Corporation, Shipping Corporation, SAIL, and Hindustan Copper, for which the government has already shown intent to divest its stake, possible now, say analysts.
With over 700,000 annual passengers and 21 per cent market share Air India is the largest carrier on India-United Kingdom routes.
Travelling from South India to Kashmir in December was magical for Ganesh Nadar as he feasted his eyes on the beauty of the snow-capped Himalayas.
A group of 219 employees of Air India along with a private financial institution have submitted an expression of interest (EOI) for the national carrier.
However, WhatsApp exchanges between the woman's daughter and Mishra that emerged on Friday showed the family had returned money.
Two aborted missions, three different ministers, multiple rule changes and two decades later, Indian taxpayers will no longer have to pay Rs 20 crore per day to keep the loss-making Air India flying. While opposition Congress expectedly attacked the decision as selling the family silver, DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said what Tata is getting is not a cash cow but an airline which is bleeding where money needs to be pumped in to refurbish obsolete aircraft and dust up strangled ones while being unable to touch any employee for one year and only be able to resize staff after paying a VRS. "It won't be a very easy task there. Only advantage is they (new Air India owner) are paying the price which they think they can manage. "They are not taking the excessive debt accumulated to fund years of losses. We are continuing it as an ongoing concern.... This process has also saved huge amount of taxpayers money going forward," Pandey told PTI.
The timeline for disinvestment of Air India and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) may be pushed by two to three months due to impact of the second Covid-19 wave. However, the government is confident of wrapping up the sale of the two companies by FY22 and meeting the disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 trillion. This will be achieved by sale of government stake in core and non-core public sector undertakings (PSUs).
A court in Canada has ordered the seizure of amounts collected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on behalf of Air India and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Separate orders were passed on November 24 and December 21 on pleas by shareholders of Devas Multimedia Private Limited who have filed multiple petitions to enforce arbitration awards against the Indian government. According to a Devas spokesperson, more than $30 million has been seized to date under the IATA action.
Curtailment of flights between India and China will help Air India and other airlines to boost their seat occupancy and market share.
Aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday said it has imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Air India for denying boarding to passengers holding valid tickets and thereafter not providing the mandatory compensation to them.
Facing Kerala in the quarter-finals in Pune from February 8, J&K will be looking to script history as they aim to make it to the Ranji Trophy semi-finals for the first time ever.
Cairn Energy and Air India have jointly asked a New York federal court to stay further proceedings in the British firm's US lawsuit targeting the airline for enforcement of a $1.2-billion arbitral award. The move follows the government enacting a law to scrap retrospective taxation in the country, which in effect will result in withdrawal of the Rs 10,247 crore tax demand on Cairn, according to court documents reviewed by PTI. The British company had won an international arbitration award against levy of such taxes and sought to take over Air India assets when the government refused to honour the award and pay it $1.2 billion-plus interest and penalty.
The Air India Express Employees Union, which is affiliated with the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, has written a letter to the chief labour commissioner (central) in this regard.
The new owner may be allowed to dispose of assets accruing from the 10-26 per cent of the net assets of the company.
Flights from Delhi or Bengaluru, while they may still fly over Iran, depending on the route, have alternative paths that may take them through Central Asia or northern routes.
The government is looking at a new timeline for Air India disinvestment and financial bids will be invited in the coming days, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday. Noting that there is no choice but to either "privatise or close" Air India, he said the government will have to keep the airline running till it gets divested. "We are looking at another timeline now, what is called data room for prospective bidders to look at... that is opened up, 64 days for the financial bids to come in. "After that it is the question of taking a decision and handing over the airline," the Minister of State for Civil Aviation said.
Police in Maharashtra's Nagpur have identified a 35-year-old man from Gondia in the state as the person behind a spate of hoax bomb threats that triggered panic, caused flight delays and led to increased security at airports and other establishments, an official said.
Ilker Ayci has declined the Tata Group's offer to be the chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director of Air India, aviation industry sources said on Tuesday. On February 14, Tata Sons had announced the appointment of Ayci, former chairman of Turkish Airlines, as the CEO and MD of Air India. RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch had last Friday said the government should not give clearance to the appointment of Ilker Ayci "keeping in view national security".
The DGCA has derostered the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) who was on duty at the time of the incident on Saturday, while IndiGo has initiated a probe into the matter
A revamped Air India under the Tata Group will be a real challenge while new airline Akasa Air will be a far less competitive force for the next two-three years, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said on Wednesday. Akasa Air, which is backed by former IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and former Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube, got the no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday.
A crew member tested at the temporary facility there was found positive for COVID-19, senior airline officials said.
In a post on the microblogging platform 'X' on Saturday, passenger Vineeth K said that even though he was getting cheaper fares with Gulf carrier Etihad, he had opted for Air India as it operates a non-stop service to the US.
Jaitley did not say if it will be an outright sale or partial divestment.
Post handing over of Air India to the Tatas, government officials will be free to book their travel with any airline that offers them the best price. And, the Centre will not have a tie up with any carrier, department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said. "The government is not mandating travel by any particular airline, going forward, after handing over Air India because there won't be any state-owned airline," he said. The department of expenditure (DoE) will soon issue instructions to government departments for official travel as this needs to be done before handing over Air India to the new buyer, he said.
'The Modi government is trying hard to see if it could be sold to a private airline.' 'But it appears there are no takers.' 'If no buyer comes forward by June, the government will close down Air India,' predicts A K Bhattacharya.
