The proposed merger of state-owned carriers Air-India and Indian is expected to be completed in the current financial year, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Monday.
American companies have so far not evinced any interest in investing in the huge Indian infrastructure market, which is estimated to be worth over $200 billion, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Tuesday.
The decision on additional grant would also be taken keeping in view the high cost debt 'both current and long term' taken by Air India.
In popular perception, the villain of the piece is former civil aviation minister Praful Patel.
The Indian hockey team recently won the Asia Cup, but the recognition the players received was nothing like what the cricket team is getting after the Twenty20 World Cup triumph.
With the agitation by Air India executive pilots entering the fourth day on Tuesday, the airline cancelled over 20 flights, including 15 from the national capital, and suspended bookings for the next 15 days.
The aircraft to be inducted by Indian Airlines are 19 Airbus A 319s, Four A 320s and 20 Airbus A 321s.
Air India vacates posh Berkeley Square space, will it leave Nariman Point?
"Aircraft movements, passenger and freight traffic registered negative growth rate of -00.10, -06.80 and -01.00 per cent during 2008-09," civil aviation minister Praful Patel said in a written reply to a query in Lok Sabha. The minister also said that the foreign airlines had increased their operations by 85 per cent in the last five years in the country.
Meanwhile, replying to another query, the minister said that National Aviation Company of India Ltd had submitted a proposal for infusion of equity of Rs 1,231 crore (Rs 12.31 billion) and provision of soft loans worth Rs 2,750 crore (rs 27.5 billion) in the last fiscal.
The government is understood to have approached industrialist Ratan Tata to head an advisory board of the ailing Air India.
The airlines, which was forced to defer payment of June salary to majority of its staff, has piled up a loss of Rs 7,200 crore as on March 31. For the fiscal 2008-09, it is estimated to have incurred a loss of about Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) in a difficult global aviation market.
The Union government is planning to appoint advisors for kick-starting the process for initial public offer of Air-India and Indian Airlines expected to hit the market later this fiscal.
"If the charges are proved, then the NCP will completely dissociate itself from Patil," senior NCP leader and Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told media-persons in New Delhi.
The government is likely to allow state-owned Airports Authority of India to raise Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) through infrastructure bonds to enable it to finance its ongoing programme to modernise and expand a large number of airports across the country.
Families of each of those killed in the Mangalore plane crash will get up to Rs 76 lakh as compensation.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Thursday said he would request the finance ministry for extending tax exemption on leased aircraft, scheduled to be implemented from April 1, 2005.
The work on restructuring Delhi and Mumbai airports would begin by the middle of next year and the process of selecting private joint venture partners for the Airports Authority of India
International flights from the Srinagar airport would operate from February 14, when it would be formally inaugurated as an international airport. The first international flight will take off for the port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, according to a statement issued by the Union Water Resources Minister, Saif-ud-Din Soz.
The government is considering allowing the GMR-led Delhi International Airport Ltd to charge airport development fee from passengers to meet the shortfall in financing the cost of expanding and modernising the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
After a meeting with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel in New Delhi, Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta told PTI that six staffers, whose services were terminated after the two-day strike that had disrupted hundreds of flights, have been taken back 'after they submitted apology letters on our advice'.
India and Qatar on Wednesday signed a bilateral air services agreement to improve connectivity and decided to further bolster multifaceted ties between the two countries.
Asserting that the government can't remain a mute spectator to the move by the air carriers, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said there can be 'no justification' for airlines to hike fares in an 'arbitrary manner'.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said some of the airlines have not been settling their dues in time. The minister said several airlines, including international carriers, had outstandings to privatised airports.
Unrest is again brewing among airport employees with the unions threatening another bout of workers action if urgent steps were not taken to meet their 'long-pending' demands.
Air-India and Indian Airlines are to submit another aircraft acquisition proposal for long haul jets and replacement of wide-bodied planes, respectively.
Overlooking opposition from the Left parties and airport employees, the government on Tuesday signed two agreements to set up joint venture companies between Airports Authority of India and the GMR and GVK groups.
The greenfield airport project at Navi Mumbai is likely to get the final environmental nod by October and the bidding process expected to begin by the year-end, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Monday.
The carriers are divided over Patel's suggestions to increase tariffs.
Interacting with media persons after the launch of the party unit, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said: "There are people here in the US who are passionate about India despite living here for so many years and we are here today to show our commitment to Indian Americans. We would like to lend a voice to their emotions, sentiments and thought processes and carry them back home."
The process of awarding contracts to restructure and modernise airports in Mumbai and Delhi would be completed before January 31, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has said.
The government on Saturday said it is expected to take a decision on privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports at the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers on January 24.
Some of the operational goals the carrier has set for itself are 25 million domestic and 15 million international passengers by 2015.
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