Indian airports' push to become global hubs will depend on reducing passenger leakage to rival airports abroad, scaling up direct long-haul connectivity, and offering transfer experiences that are faster, smoother, and more attractive than those of regional competitors, said panellists at the Business Standard Infrastructure Summit on Thursday.
The fairy tale turnaround story has, however, taken a few knocks after a second wave of the pandemic has brought a series of default notices and has posed the toughest test for the 55-year old Singh to save the airline he founded and sold to the Marans only to assume control later.
"The markets do not remain the same forever but still, anything that makes sense to Jet Airways' shareholders will make sense for the promoters as well," Goyal said. Together with JetLite, formerly Air Sahara, which Jet bought last year, the airline controls over 29 per cent of the Indian domestic market.
Alleging that something was fishy in the Jet-Etihad deal, BJP today demanded that the Prime Minister's Office should come clean on the issue.
It offers fares as low as Rs 1,499 for a one-way journey.
Private carrier Jet Airways on Monday said Ravi Chaturvedi has quit the company as Group CEO in March, ahead of his scheduled departure in June.
A senior civil aviation ministry official said this was one of the key issues discussed during Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday to ask for a relief on ATF. Top airline executives like Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal and Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya also met the PM to highlight the issue.
Flight cancellations and subsequent grounding of Jet Airways adversely impacted seat capacity in the domestic market which also resulted in fares going up.
Goyal was questioned by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office on Thursday in Mumbai in connection with allegations of some financial irregularities.
Jet is believed to be in talks with leading private equity players.
Together with Jet Airways we will have 61 flights to Amsterdam and Paris during the winter season. That also makes us the second largest airline group after Lufthansa, which has 67 weekly flights, and we are catching up to become the first, says KLM CEO Pieter Elbers.
After the August 10 deadline, South American conglomerate Synergy Group Corp reportedly evinced interest in the airline, forcing the RP to seek lenders' nod to extend the deadline to August 31. The Synergy Group owns a majority in Colombian carrier Avianca Holdings, which has a codeshare partnership with the state-run Air India.
Wadia Group-owned Go First Airways' (Go First) insolvency plea could trigger a 'momentum rally' in shares of rival airlines, Interglobe Aviation (parent company of IndiGo) and SpiceJet, as they look to gain bankrupt airline's market share, said analysts. On the bourses, shares of InterGlobe Aviation hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,235.95, surging 8 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday's intra-day trade, before settling 4.5 per cent higher at Rs 2,164 apiece. Those of SpiceJet and Jet Airways, meanwhile, rallied up to 6 per cent in the intra-day trade, and ended 1 per cent and 5 per cent higher, respectively, following the development, which was announced post market hours on Tuesday.
After due deliberations, the lenders have decided to seek resolution for Jet Airways under the bankruptcy code since only a conditional bid was received.
In a rare move, the DGCA has filed a police complaint against 34 pilots of Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir.
SpiceJet announced discounted fares on domestic sector.
Jet had bought Sahara Airlines from the Sahara group in April 2007 for Rs 1,450 crore after an arbitration award. It paid Rs 900 crore and agreed to pay the balance in four instalments. In March 2008, the income-tax department demanded tax dues of Rs 107 crore from Sahara India Airlines. Jet decided this should come from Sahara as it pertained to the period before the acquisition.
Resolution professional, Ashish Chhawchharia, had informed the bankruptcy tribunal that two new investors had shown early interest for investing in Jet. One of them is a foreign investor from West Asia and the other is an Indian-entity-backed by a UK investor.
In the season of aviation action, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air has secured the crucial no-objection certificate (NoC) from the civil aviation ministry. It expects to start operations next summer. The airline will now have to apply for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for operations permit. Aviation sector has been in the limelight with the Tata Group winning the Air India bid last week.
Jet's supremacy has now been challenged by a nimble and aggressive Kingfisher which, in just two years and following Mallya's buyout of Air Deccan, is commanding the same market share as Jet Airways and Jetlite.
Though public shareholding in Jet is already down to the mandated 25 per cent, the regulator wants its promoters to pare their stake further.
Private carrier Jet Airways, which is engaged in a legal battle with Sahara group over the failed deal to acquire Air Sahara, is understood to be holding discussions with the Sahara top brass for an out-of-court settlement.
Naresh Goyal-owned group companies, including the airline's general sales agent in India and abroad, and a car rental firm, are among those who have filed claims.
Qatar Airways might infuse $200 million in debt and equity in SpiceJet.
Among the other conditions of the Hinduja group for picking up a stake in Jet is that bankers must take a haircut of 80 per cent and that they should help negotiate with operational creditors like aircraft lessors for moratorium on certain immediate payments.
More than 300 flights have been cancelled and at least 25 airports, including Srinagar, have been temporarily shut for operations amid restrictions in the wake of the armed forces launching missile attacks on terror targets in Pakistan on Wednesday morning.
The trails of mega-mergers, tailwinds of expanding fleets, flights and airports will dot the fast-growing Indian aviation firmament in 2025, though the dark clouds of supply chain woes will persist longer. Also, new airline takeoffs, the future trajectory of revised norms to tackle pilot fatigue and efforts to reduce carbon emissions will be on the radar.
Both lenders and Etihad are not comfortable with the entities holding stake in Jet as they have no proven credentials in running a big business
The catch is you will have to book your flight by August 27 and travel between September 25 and January 15, an airline spokesperson said, adding the offer is applicable on all direct, via and onward flights on SpiceJet's domestic network.
A revamped Air India under the Tata Group will be a real challenge while new airline Akasa Air will be a far less competitive force for the next two-three years, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said on Wednesday. Akasa Air, which is backed by former IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and former Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube, got the no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday.
Mallya claims private airlines were discriminated against by the Indian government, which bailed out state-owned Air India but did not assist his own Kingfisher Airlines and now Jet Airways.
Options include fresh capital infusion by the management and/or some new investors.
The IRP has admitted 33 claims from banks worth Rs 8,462 crore, and is verifying Rs 15,044-crore claims from operational creditors and staff.
Signalling an imminent change in SpiceJet's ownership, potential investors including co-founder Ajay Singh and US-based JPMorgan have begun discussions with markets regulator Sebi over their investment plan for the cash-strapped airline.
The Supreme Court on Friday got irked over a lengthy judgement penned by a single judge bench of the Delhi high court in a case related to an arbitral award involving media baron Kalanithi Maran and SpiceJet, saying there was no "application of mind". Suggesting that the case be now transferred to another judge by the Delhi HC, the top court said the judgement "has to be carefully articulated" and "the judge must apply mind to grounds of challenge and then deduce if interference is warranted". The strong observations against the single judge bench came from a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud during the hearing of an appeal by Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways against a Delhi high court order setting aside an arbitral award asking the SpiceJet to refund Rs 579 crore plus interest to the media baron and his firm.
Indian bankers are fearful that going out of their way to save Jet could lead to subsequent harassment from investigative agencies.
For debt-laden Jet Airways, bitter foe Tata may turn into timely saviour.
'Just look at China: They have five or six major airlines and some smaller ones.'
This is an exceptional case of extension beyond the 330-day limit under the insolvency and bankruptcy code.
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