Two issues dog the sale of the national carrier. One is the $2 billion bank guarantee the winning bidder will need to furnish. The other is the nearly 5000 lawsuits filed against Air India, many of them overseas. Anjuli Bhargava reports.
Cumulative losses after Dreamliner launch stand at Rs 80 crore.
Panel of its and govt officials to scrutinise operational record and decide whether to proceed with inducting more Boeing 787s.
An Air India Dreamliner, with 184 passengers and crew onboard operating on London-Delhi route, made "priority" landing at the IGI Airport after some warning lights indicating problem with the braking system blipped in the cockpit.
It is a similar story several thousand miles away, outside the company's North Charleston, South Carolina final assembly building, where space is taken up by four 787s destined for Air India.
Recently, there have been technical mishaps, including an electrical fire and a brake problem, involving the aircraft.
Air India has put all its newly-acquired Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner planes for sale and leaseback and invited bids from prospective lessors by February first week, even as all of these aircraft remained grounded across the world.
Grounding increases govt carrier's fuel cost by Rs 40 lakh daily, forces changes in schedules.
Sale, leaseback of aircraft fetch Air India $150 million; funds to be used to partly repay bridge loan.
The new owner may be allowed to dispose of assets accruing from the 10-26 per cent of the net assets of the company.
The airline is also shutting down its Lagos route with effect from October 10.
Air India plans to buy 27 B-787 'Dreamliners' from Boeing which are to be delivered in phases.
The Tata group may have to deploy upwards of $1 billion to improve the airline's passenger reservation system, upgrade and refurbish Air India's fleet, primarily the wide-body aircraft which are the mainstay for the airline's international operations, people in the know said. While the group has not yet decided on how it intends to integrate Air India with its existing airlines AirAsia India and Vistara, sources said the first task will be to refinance Air India's existing loans, upgrade its aircraft gradually, and rewrite multiple business contracts with vendors and suppliers. "They will have to do 100 things to stabilise the airline and will have to put in a lot of money," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said, confirming that many aircraft are grounded.
Boeing admitted on Wednesday that it would have to redesign parts of its troubled 787 Dreamliner, raising the prospect of a third delay to delivery of the new aircraft would be delayed for the third time in recent months. The company's comments came in response to a warning from Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman of International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), the 787's biggest customer.
Besides lining up Bali, Nairobi and Toronto flights, the airline is also planning flights from Mumbai to Hong Kong. The network expansion will help the national carrier grow its market share and capitalise on the capacity vaccum created by the collapse of Jet Airways.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing the incident of an Air India flight, AI 123, from New Delhi to Rome losing radio contact over Italy on October 16.
To sell five Boeing 777s, replacing these with cheaper aircraft
It is imperative that the government first decides who should assume ownership of running Air India.
National carrier Air India has tied up with Deutsche Bank and the British lender Investec Bank to raise up to $500 million to take the delivery of five Boeing Dreamliners, according to airline sources.
A Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner operated by Air India this week returned to London due to a communications problem, but has since been operational, the state-run carrier said on Wednesday.
There are several first officers who have flown 5,000 hours
A shortage of pilots and cabin crew is one reason for flight delays.
It said Air India "accepted" that though the number of flights from Delhi "increased substantially.
Last October, the national carrier sold five planes of the same type to Etihad Airways for about $350 million.
SpiceJet also plans to increase its daily flights to 251.
The two Boeing 787s, which were to take off for their destinations just 10 minutes apart on Thursday, had to be replaced with new planes which flew the passengers to their respective destinations, they said.
The CMD's focus on raising employee morale and cutting costs is paying off. The airline's operating losses have shrunk and earnings are looking up
The airline's accounts are yet to be audited.
An additional lease rental of Rs 200 crore on nine Boeing 787 Dreamliners was the reason for ending in the red this quarter, Arindam Majumder reports from New Delhi.
The airline will fly the A320s between the Tier-II and Tier-III cities.
After rectifying battery glitches, Air India has inducted 6 aircraft so far
Air India Express along with SpiceJet and Jet Airways is one of the three main targets for Boeing in the country as it promotes its new 737 MAX aircraft, which is scheduled to enter commercial operations in 2017.
The Boeing website lists the price of a Boeing 737-800 aircraft at $90.5 million.
"The return fare on economy class to most European capitals from Mumbai are close to 50,000 plus. If an LCC can offer direct connectivity for a basic fare of 25,000 with additional top ups for meals, baggage and blankets, which further takes the fare to, say, 35,000, it is still a value deal."
A Mumbai-Delhi air ticket is now available upwards of Rs 3,700 for next day travel on all airlines.
Airbus is now confident of crossing 1,000 net orders (excluding cancellations or conversions from previous orders) in 2014.
At present, Air India offers eight first class, 35 business class and 195 economy class seats in its Boeing 777 200-LRs.
But the Abu Dhabi-based airline would first bolster its own network with traffic from India before Jet's turnaround.
Falling jet fuel prices and a revival in domestic traffic growth offer the new CMD a once in a lifetime opportunity.
