The Leader of the Aviation Industry Employees Guild, George Abraham was also present at the meeting. The four pilots sacked by the management will be taken back and resume duties while the Registrar of Trade Unions will take a decision on the status of the National Aviators Guild (NAG) spearheading the stir, according to aviation sources.
Patel discusses the airline's problems and defends his record.
A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad sought response from the government, the national carrier and CBI on a petition filed by an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, alleging that various decisions taken during the tenure of Patel were meant to benefit private airlines and caused huge loss to Air India.
The Supreme Court has admitted for hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging a major scam during the tenure of Praful Patel as the Civil Aviation Minister in the UPA-I government.
The government will consider the issue of infusing equity into ailing Air India shortly, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said on Thursday.
The government's support is there for Air India, (but) it comes with a condition, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said.
Air India on Friday took back six out of its 57 employees, sacked following a flash strike days after the May 22 Mangalore air crash, and revoked the suspension of 27 others.
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.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said, "full service airlines earlier used to offer five per cent commission to travel agents on basic fare." "From November 1, 2008, Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher abolished the agency commission and introduced transaction fee model... (however) Jet and Kingfisher have started paying commission on basic fare and fuel surcharge.
Mallika Sherawat, spotted in a very sheer sari.
The visual control tower at 95 metre would provide all-round view of the airport. The complex will also have meteorological facilities, search and rescue and anti-hijacking measures.
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.
In a coalition era, the smallest of parties gets almost blackmail power and that power is in direct proportion to the weakness of the senior coalition partner. Which is why, for instance, even in an era of coalitions, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a lot more powerful than Manmohan Singh is.
Meanwhile, accusing Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel of being responsible for the state of affairs in Air India, the CPI(M) has demanded the immediate revocation of the order to derecognise the unions and sacking of employees for going on a flash strike.
The government on Thursday claimed that the losses of Air India were coming down and admitted that there were "some issues" which were affecting the process of its merger.
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.
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.
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.
According to top sources in the government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his meeting with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Tuesday asked the ministry to take an initiative, even as the turmoil in the ailing airline deepened.
"I hope the entire airline (Air India) will come back to full operation from tomorrow (Wednesday), otherwise the Air India management will be free to take any decision that it feels is necessary," Patel said in a veiled threat.
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.
Air India vacates posh Berkeley Square space, will it leave Nariman Point?
National carriers stood second-last among eight of the scheduled domestic airlines in percentage terms of on-time performance in departures during 2008, government said on Tuesday.
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 airline's current board has only one independent director -- N Vaghul, ex-chairman of ICICI, while the remaining nine are either from the civil aviation ministry or the airline itself. On the requirement of funds for reviving the national carrier, Patel said that a revival plan on the financial side is expected from SBI Caps soon.
Sulking former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Tuesday attended a party meeting in Mumbai.
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.
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.
"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 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
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.
The proceeds of the IPO are expected to be ploughed into activities like expanding the fleet of the airline, which was earlier merged with its sister carrier Indian.
Air-India and Indian Airlines are to submit another aircraft acquisition proposal for long haul jets and replacement of wide-bodied planes, respectively.
