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.
Investment bankers handling the IPO had said marquee global investors made big-ticket applications.
The central government has agreed in-principle to Air India employees' main demands. It fears an industrial dissension now could impede the process of privatisation. It has agreed to bear the cost of liquidation loss on account of transfer to the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) from company-owned trusts, inclusion of employees in the central government health scheme (CGHS), and encashment of leaves. The template of the Air India process will be followed for other public sector undertakings up for privatisation at a later date.
The eighth strike this year by the pilots over retirement benefits forced Germany's largest airline to cancel more than 1,500 flights on Monday.
Apart from the main company, five of Air India's subsidiaries and a joint venture firm have been included in the strategic sale plan.
Its association with India is over 70 years old and spans both civil and military aviation. The Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft used by the air force beginning the 1940s and the iconic Boeing 747 aircraft flown by Air India, both had Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. The Indian Air Force's present-day, heavy-lift C-17 Globemaster III and the yet-to-be-inducted C-295 planes, too, have P&W power plants.
IndiGo which has close to 40 per cent market share, at present has 129 aircraft and operates 883 daily flights to 44 destinations. It also has around 400 aircraft on order.
A day after FIPB cleared the Tata-Singapore Airlines' (SIA) airline venture, Tata group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata and SIA chief Goh Choon Phong on Friday met Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh exuding confidence of launching flights by May-June next year.
However, Federation of Indian Airlines will continue to function and its other members are not pulling the plug yet, industry sources said.
Let Air India - that anyway flies very limited international routes, often bleeding profusely and makes huge losses on trunk routes - do this national service, says Anjuli Bhargava.
The shipping business is like the heaving sea -- it's up and down, observes Shyam G Menon.
Jet Airways, the country's largest private air-carrier, has posted a net loss of Rs 225.3 crore in the first quarter, compared to a profit of Rs 143.4 crore during the same period last year, following a drop in domestic load and lower yields.
The country's fourth budget carrier has also announced the addition of Kochi to its existing network from July 20.
Tightening Russian gas supplies to Europe has led to scramble for tankers before winter sets in.
Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has also ordered an engineering audit of the airline after the carrier is said to have found it difficult to provide equipment to operate some flights.
While IndiGo had 11.8 per cent of all the international seats to and fro India in the last week of August, Air India's seat share was 11.4 per cent. Emirates came third with 8.1 per cent, and rest of the airlines constituted 68 per cent of the seat share.
So should airlines play the keening, trance-like Siddi folk music from the Kutch peninsula? The Sufiana Kalam of Kashmir? Carnatic music? Rabindra Sangeet? Bihu melodies? Classical music from the Hindustani gharanas? Ghazals? Bhajans? Bollywood hits?... asks Kanika Datta.
In June, flydubai doubled its network in India with the start of flights to Delhi, Kochi and Trivandrum.
Tata Sons has emerged as the top bidder for the takeover of debt-laden State-run airline Air India but the bid is yet to be approved by a group of ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, sources said.
'Earlier, when they were selling tickets at Rs 1,000, a family of five could travel by flight.' 'When it comes to realistic pricing and the price becomes Rs 5,000, a family of five will have shell out Rs 25,000.' 'How many will be able to afford that?' 'You will see people switching back to train travel which is more realistic.'
If the Murari Lal Jalan-Kalrock Capital combine can script a turnaround, it will have pulled off a bigger coup than Ajay Singh did with SpiceJet in 2014.
The Aam Aadmi Party's spectacular electoral debut in New Delhi is now creating ripples down south.
Vistara will have to face stiff competition from Jet Airways, AirAsia
This is a setback for the divestment process of Air India as no other Indian airline has the capability to fund the process
The status of the current submarine force level is alarming and we need to address the threat perceptions expeditiously. Critical decisions pertaining to national security cannot be delayed any further due to the rapidly changing maritime threat perceptions and growing strategic importance of the Indian Ocean region, asserts Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Airbus is now confident of crossing 1,000 net orders (excluding cancellations or conversions from previous orders) in 2014.
Those who book tickets at discounted fares but later decide to check-in luggage would have to pay a fee.
'A growing segment wants to fly Vistara but may not be really ready to pay for certain products that come with a full-service carrier. That is a large segment and we can't ignore it,' says CEO Leslie Thng.
The number of Indian passengers has jumped more than 20 per cent in the past year
The airline will be inducting large number of A321s this year which will be largely used on international routes and high density domestic routes.
Out of the total amount, Rs 17,359.77 crore is aircraft loan, while Rs 31,517.04 crore is working capital loan.
Ajay Singh will team up with two blue-chip investors to bail out the airline
Analysts have questioned the Aditya Ghosh-led company's negative net worth due to a huge dividend payout ahead of an IPO.
Top no-frills carrier IndiGo on Tuesday approached capital markets regulator Sebi with Initial Public Offer.
According to officials, more clarity might be required with regard to foreign fund managers in the context of Air India divestment.
iPhone SE users can browse, download and stream content even faster with wi-fi up to three times and LTE up to 50 per cent faster than iPhone 5s.
National carrier Air India became part of the 27-member global airlines grouping Star Alliance, as budget airline AirAsia India launched operations and Tata-SIA joint venture carrier Vistara received the flying permit and announced its intentions to start operations from January 9.
Domestic air traffic logged 14.35 per cent growth in November as compared to the corresponding period last year propelled by the festive season rush.
The promoter-brothers, distant cousins to IndiGo's Rahul Bhatia, are eyeing Air India's ground handling subsidiary to augment their aviation services business even as they make a big play in EVs.
.jpg)
As per the FIPB agenda, the proposal will be taken up on October 18.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances