'All they need is proper leadership.'
In recent times, there have also been instances of GPS spoofing and interference incidents at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai airports.
$3.6 billion worth of aircraft - by today's prices - are lying idle or are in hangers due to poor maintenance and management
Ilker Ayci has declined the Tata Group's offer to be the chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director of Air India, aviation industry sources said on Tuesday. On February 14, Tata Sons had announced the appointment of Ayci, former chairman of Turkish Airlines, as the CEO and MD of Air India. RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch had last Friday said the government should not give clearance to the appointment of Ilker Ayci "keeping in view national security".
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.
Air India's newly-appointed Chairman and Managing Director Raghu Menon has ruled out a possibility of an initial public offer this year. Instead Air India will approach the Government for infusing more money to strengthen its equity base. Air India would build up a well-considered case before approaching the Government on the matter. Air India was looking at employee stock options (ESOPs). Govt help will be required due to the huge borrowings it had taken to buy new aircraft.
If the idea of LWP scheme is to only weed out around 600 employees and subsequently save the carrier Rs 10 crore a month, the management could have easily laid off the retired employees, who had an advantage over others by dint of having 'connections' internally and in the corridors of the ministry of civil aviation, say Air India staff.
In its first move to significantly expand the fleet after the Tatas took over, Air India has leased 25 Airbus narrow-body aircraft and five Boeing wide-body planes. These will enter service starting December, the company said on Monday. A wide-body plane has a bigger fuel tank, allowing it to travel longer distances such as India-US routes.
The statement came a day after the state-run carrier asked all executives in the rank of general managers and above to voluntarily forego salary and productivity-linked incentive payable in the month of July 2009.
An airline official said the ban is with immediate effect and is in addition to the 30-day ban it had imposed on the individual earlier.
The induction of four representatives from the private sector as independent directors to oversee the national carrier's turnaround was supposed to leaven the weaknesses associated with political control with wise and disinterested counsel.
Air India would add four more aircraft to the Air India Express fleet this year to expand its budget flight services, a top company official said.
Gurugram, already established as the corporate hub of Delhi-NCR, is increasingly attracting developers from outside the region, drawn by robust end-user demand, premium pricing, and emerging development opportunities.
The new owners of Air India will have to retain all the employees of the national carrier for at least one year post which they can offer a VRS. The gratuity, pension fund and post retirement medical benefits of existing and past employees too would be honoured by the new owner, civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal said. Tata Sons has emerged as the winning bidder for Air India with the government accepting its Rs 18,000 crore offer to acquire 100 per cent of the debt-laden state-run carrier.
In a letter to Air India Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal, the ICPA said, "In the press conference by Honourable Minister Shri Hardeep Singh Puri dated 16th July 2020, you had stated 'we are in negotiation with the pilots', which is far from reality." "It was not a negotiation, but the 'diktat' of the MoCA (ministry of civil aviation) which was conveyed to us. We would also like to place on record that the so-called negotiation was 'not harmonious' in any aspect," the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) noted.
Arvind Jadhav, a senior IAS officer and the current CMD of Air India, was sent back to parent Karnataka cadre.
"Financial bids for Air India disinvestment received by Transaction Adviser. Process now moves to concluding stage," DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.
The panel will be asked to give report by March-April next year.
While Bhasin will be getting provident fund money and gratuity, he would not be getting leave encashment for 420 days, medical reimbursement for himself and wife, free passes for himself and wife, and holiday home facilities.
While its top officers like functional directors and joint managing directors are entitled to get 24 free tickets each year, deputy general managers and above get 20 passages under a scheme called Passage Entitlement-Vacation Travel.
The Government had on August 11 approved three-month extension to Nandan "with the direction that the process of selection of a new CMD may be completed in the meantime.
Board also discussed the modified turnaround plan.
The senior pilot was suspended in May last year after being found guilty of sexual harassment by an internal committee of the airline. The committee imposed a 'major penalty' on Captain Sachin Gupta, who has now appealed to the next authority against the punishment.
National carrier Air India, which will soon be merged with Indian Airlines, may partner Cochin International Airport for setting up an airframe maintenance, repair and overhaul facility near the Kochi airport, Kerala.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
The EoI and the share purchase agreement would be issued in January itself for the bidders. While Air India's net loss in 2018-19 was around Rs 8,556 crore, its current total debt is around Rs 80,000 crore.
'We expect inbound numbers in 2025 to come close to pre-pandemic levels -- if not fully match them -- by early 2026.'
Air India may place fresh orders for aircraft this year to cater to the growing demand and expand its network, even as it plans to lease 10 to 15 planes till 2012 when the planes already ordered would be delivered.
Rohit Nandan will continue to work as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of national carrier Air India for one month or till Ashwani Lohani takes over from him.
Divestment-bound Air India's pilot unions have rejected the paltry five per cent rollback in their salary cuts and warned of "industrial action" if there is no "substantial" reversal in their paycuts. In a joint letter to Air India chairman and managing director Rajiv Bansal on Thursday, the Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG) and the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) said, "(The) pittance in the form of a five per cent decrease in the current wage cut is an outright insult, its sting magnified in light of our unwavering support and trust in this company." They said this "generosity" amounts to a reduction of about 3 per cent in the current gross pay cut for pilots. In April, Air India had reduced its pilots' salary by up to 70 per cent to partially offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its finances.
Inactive crew members are employees who are on any kind of leave be it casual, medical or privilege.
An Air India pilots' grouping has raised fatigue concerns in the wake of flight crew rosters generated using a new rostering tool, saying that extended waiting periods between duty time will jeopardise crew alertness and performance. "Extended waiting periods, occurring before active flight duties, run counter to enhancing crew readiness and, in fact, contribute to the accumulation of fatigue over time," the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) has said. In a letter to Air India head of safety Henry Donohoe last week, IPG said it has been recently observed that the relentless pursuit of operational efficiency and economic gains has led to an unintended overshadowing of the primary intent behind Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) regulations.
With Arvind Jadhav, principal secretary, in the department of infrastructure development of the Karnataka government, emerging as the frontrunner in the race to replace Raghu Menon as the chairman and managing director of the state-owned National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs Air India, informed sources said Menon lost the coveted job because of his opposition to the airline's proposed joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).
In November, six primary market issuances accounted for more than 13,000 crore of net equity investments by MFs.
The move will help to reduce Air India's distribution cost by 60 per cent
Tata Group-owned Air India CEO Campbell Wilson on Saturday apologised for a flyer urinating on a fellow female passenger on a flight from New York in November, and said four cabin crew and a pilot have been de-rostered and the airline is reviewing policy of serving alcohol on flights.
Alliance Air, the wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, will operate 6 flights a week except Friday and will use ATR Aircraft on this route which can carry up to 45 passengers, the sources said.
Where was the Board when a predictable regulatory change brought the country's largest airline to its knees? asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
