Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said Indian airlines had suffered major losses in the past two years over the unprecedented rise in prices of aviation turbine fuel.
Reliance-ASA on Monday emerged as the highest financial bidder for the Delhi airport modernisation project, offering 46 per cent of revenue share to government for the work.
Indian Airlines fares have been raised by 15 per cent across the board with immediate effect due to a massive increase in the prices of aviation turbine fuel, Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain
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.
The civil aviation minister is facing charges of 'milking' the PSUs for personal gains.
Kingfisher owes Rs 257.62 crore (Rs 2.57 billion) to the AAI, while Jet Airways Rs 38.49 crore (Rs 384.9 million) and its low cost arm JetLite Rs 13.96 crore (Rs 139.6 million), as on January 31, Civil Aviation Minister and Minister for Overseas Affairs Vayalar Ravi informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Announcing this in New Delhi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said trial runs on the new third runway of IGI Airport would begin in ten days from now. Once operational, it would go a long way to ease the air traffic congestion over the Delhi airspace. The two airports, as per the recommendations of the respective state governments, would be developed by the state-owned AAI and not privatised.
He said the ministry was considering bidding out the airstrips in blocks for development as it might not be feasible to do it individually.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Tuesday said Finance Minister P Chidambaram has agreed "in principle" to infuse more equity in Indian Airlines and Air-India to enable them expand fleet.
The Karnataka government plans to develop new airports at Gulbarga and Hassan.
Air India's outstanding debt stood at a whopping Rs 26,033 crore (Rs 260.33 billion) and its working capital loans were over Rs 21,125 crore (Rs 211.25 billion) as on December 31 last year.
A draft note on equity infusion in Air India, prepared by the civil aviation ministry, is being sent to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
The Union Cabinet's nod is required to give effect to the government decision to allow private carriers to fly to Colombo, Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said on Wednesday.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora will meet Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and chiefs of airlines and oil companies to discuss a solution for dues of over Rs 2,000 crore that the domestic carriers owe the state-owned oil marketers on fuel sales.
Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal on Wednesday said that he would have no option but to follow 'the law of the land' if an action had to be taken against the agitating pilots, while appealing to them to resolve the matter amicably and return to work. Meanwhile, Goyal met Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel in the wake of the agitation by the airline pilots.
A Delhi-bound SpiceJet plane hit a stray buffalo on the runway while rolling for take-off from Surat airport late Thursday night, providing anxious moments to the 146 people on board.
"We have not received any official list of Indian nationals present in the crashed plane," Patel, who was in Surat to inaugurate Surat airport, said.
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