As the Tata group inches closer to taking over Air India in January 2022, the $242-billion conglomerate will also inherit a stake in Kerala's Cochin airport. The Tatas would become the only airline to have an operational stake in a major Indian airport. The airport is a strategic hub connecting India to Middle East nations - home to the largest share of Indian migrant workers. In addition to Air India and Air India Express, private carrier Indigo also uses Cochin to ferry the lucrative 'Malayali Gulf traffic' to multiple locations like Jeddah, Riyadh, Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Kuwait and Bahrain, among others. According to regulatory filings, Air India has a three per cent stake in Cochin International Airport.
The Tata group has begun its second innings with Air India from a war zone. Being first up in Operation Ganga to evacuate Indian nationals from Ukraine, the salt-to-software conglomerate has faced a real war. But the fire-fighting that the group experienced in appointing a chief executive officer (CEO) for the airline that it acquired from the government in a Rs 18,000-crore deal recently may have felt no less.
Samridhi Bhardwaj analyses the dynamics of duty-free liquor allowance in India.
"Financial bids for Air India disinvestment received by Transaction Adviser. Process now moves to concluding stage," DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.
Airbus on Tuesday said it will deliver the first A350 aircraft to Air India by the end of this year and that the deal with the airline also marks the European aviation major's "emphatic return" to the wide-body segment in India, which is the fastest growing aviation market. As it looks to expand the fleet as well as operations, Tata Group-owned Air India on Tuesday announced that it will buy 250 planes from Airbus -- 210 from the A320 neo family and 40 A350. Remi Maillard, president and managing director of Airbus India and South Asia, said the company was very proud that the Tata Group has chosen A350 and A320 planes for Air India, adding that the magnitude of the order shows the appetite for growth in the Indian aviation industry, which is the fastest growing aviation market.
Tata Group-owned Air India has informed the Centre that aircraft lessors wish to set up their special purpose vehicles (SPVs) outside India since they aren't enthused about the Indian 'legal structure' and are loath to take risks. Indian airlines have a combined fleet of about 700 planes; over 85 per cent are on lease. A majority of lessors are based in Ireland due to its attractive tax policy, light-touch regulations, and swift legal system.
The government on Wednesday asked ministries and departments to clear dues of debt-laden Air India immediately and henceforth purchase tickets only in cash. The government earlier this month decided to sell Air India to Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group, for Rs 18,000 crore. The Department of Expenditure, under the Finance Ministry, in a 2009 order, had said that in cases of air travel (both domestic and international), including LTC where the Government of India bears the cost of air passage, the officials may travel only by Air India.
After more than two decades and three attempts, the government has finally sold its flagship national carrier Air India, and it is deja vu for Maharaja as it returned home to its founding father the Tata group. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (JRD) Tata founded the airline in 1932 and named it Tata Airlines. In 1946, the aviation division of Tata Sons was listed as Air India, and in 1948, the Air India International was launched with flights to Europe. The international service was among the first public-private partnerships in India, with the government holding 49 per cent, the Tatas keeping 25 per cent and the public owning the rest. In 1953, Air India was nationalised and for the next over four decades it remained the prized possession for India controlling the majority of the domestic airspace.
Corporate margins and profits in India remain vulnerable to changes in crude oil prices in the international market. Historical quarterly data from listed companies (excluding banks, finance and insurance, oil and gas, and power sectors) indicate an adverse correlation between corporate margins and crude oil prices.
Cyrus Mistry undertook quite a few significant initiatives at the Tata Group in the past two years.
Tata's Vistara has a very strong core team to look into daily operations.
Flight AI173 from Delhi was diverted to Magadan in Russia on Tuesday owing to an engine glitch, the Tata Group-owned private carrier said in a statement.
India to become 3rd largest aviation market by 2026.
The government on Monday signed the share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Earlier this month, the government had accepted an offer by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate, to pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt. Following that, on October 11 a Letter of Intenet (LoI) was issued to the Tata Group confirming the government's willingness to sell its 100 per cent stake in the airline.
In all, 4.2 million shares were sold during the quarter.
Hundreds of pilots are staring at a long wait to get the job of their dreams after completing the course, the cost of which runs to Rs 1 crore.
J R D Tata and Air India... Mrigank Warrier explores one of India's eternal love stories.
The appointment followed the resignation of Nikos Kardassis on June 7 after he served two terms as CEO between 1993-1999 and again from October 2009 till May 2013.
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.
The Champions League final was set to be staged at Zenit St Petersburg's stadium on May 28.
India has evacuated at least 670 Indian nationals from Sudan and is looking to rescue more of its citizens from the strife-torn African nation before the end of a tenuous ceasefire between the regular army and a paramilitary force.
Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group was among "multiple" entities who on Monday put in preliminary bids for buying the government's stake in loss-making carrier Air India.
Apart from Air India, the implementation of the airport hub project would involve the airport authorities, other Star Alliance partner airlines which operate from the two airports and ground handling agencies, among others, to make it easier for smooth transfer of passengers from one flight to another.
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 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 Neu, the super app from the Tata group, has been downloaded by over 7 million users within seven weeks of its launch. And, the company wants to ramp this up to 150 million users in the next two years, said senior executives of Tata Digital in an internal magazine of the Tata group. According to data from App Annie, a mobile app tracking platform, the Tata Neu app has been downloaded by over 11 million users.
Vistara starts flying in India.
InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of the country's largest airline IndiGo, will convene a shareholders' meeting on December 30 to amend the company's Articles of Association (AoA) following a joint request from its promoters. The promoters -- Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal -- together with their related entities and individuals own 77.4 per cent stake in InterGlobe Aviation. In a regulatory filing on Monday, the company said it will convene an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on December 30 to amend the AoA to remove restrictions on transfer of shares by the promoters.
Paving the way for Air India's entry into the largest global airlines' grouping, Star Alliance today unanimously decided to recommence the national carrier's integration process that was suspended in 2011.
Tata Group-owned Air India, under its new chief executive officer and managing director Campbell Wilson, is optimising its domestic strategy under which the carrier is "densifying" its presence on metro-to-metro routes and exiting from unviable ones, Business Standard has learnt. Wilson took charge on July 25. Air India has increased its flights on metro-to-metro routes such as Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Bengaluru, and Hyderabad-Mumbai between June and November this year.
With respect to the cancelled flights, customers can opt for a full refund or alternative travel dates free of cost.
His whereabouts was unknown as protesters have now occupied both his office and official residence.
'My wife, family members as well as members of the workers will be trustees.' 'The trust will take all decisions -- no family member can individually take any decision.'
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.
'All they need is proper leadership.'
Air India would add about 400 daily flights and over 40 new destinations in India to the 27-member Alliance network of over 18,500 daily flights to 1,316 airports in 195 countries.
Despite the best ever quarterly net profit of Rs 3,091 crore during April-June of financial year 2023-24 (Q1FY24), challenges are mounting for InterGlobe Aviation-run IndiGo in the near term, said analysts. Given this, most brokerages have retained their ratings from 'buy to underperform', as well as their target price for the stock. For instance, Motilal Oswal Financial Services has retained its 'neutral' rating on the scrip as it believes the low-cost airline is facing teething issues at present.
A video apparently shot by one of the five Indian passengers on board the aircraft that plunged into a gorge in Pokhara on Sunday captures the horrific moments of the crash that killed 72 people.
Jet Airways, IndiGo and GoAir achieved operating profits of Rs 122.6 crore (Rs 1.22 billion), Rs 795.8 crore (Rs 7.95 billion) and Rs 85.1 crore (Rs 851 million) respectively during the same period, Minister of State for Civil Aviation K C Venugopal said in reply to a question.
