The NACIL will operate three domestic flights on Wednesday using Air India aircraft and cabin crew in view of the ongoing agitation by a section of employees of the airline.
Yechuri also said the process of merging Air India and Indian Airlines (Indian) has not taken place in a proper way.
NACIL will meet all of its proposed investment from the internal and extra budgetary resources, the Budget documents presented in the Parliament today showed. The company had invested Rs 4,136.89 crore in 2008-09. Of the total Plan outlay of Rs 12,164.76 crore for the ministry of civil aviation, the government announced budgetary support of Rs 190 crore for the sector.
Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and state-owned NACIL owe public sector oil companies over Rs 2,241 crore (Rs 22.41 billion) as payment for jet fuel, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said on Tuesday.
Besides engine-wash of the flag-carrier's aircraft, the facility, to be set up at the Mumbai International airport, would undertake work from third parties, the company said.
National Aviation Company of India Limited, the public sector entity that owns Air India, will be offering a voluntary leave-without-pay scheme to 15,000 employees--around 46 per cent of its staff strength--to help the financially-strapped airline save over Rs 75 crore annually.
The finance ministry has agreed to furnish sovereign guarantees on loans raised by National Aviation Company India Ltd, which flies under the Air India brand name. A top source in the ministry confirmed: "Yes, we will provide sovereign guarantee to Air India on its loans. After all, it is a company owned by the government."
The NACIL raised $1 billion through External Commercial Borrowings(ECBs) to get aircraft on lease and hire-purchase basis, according to a data released by the Reserve Bank on Wednesday. The debt raised by NACIL under the approval route will have to be repaid over a period of 13 years and three months.
Moving ahead with its fleet expansion plan, cash-strapped Air India has sought a long-term loan of USD 475 million from banks and financial institutions to acquire three long-haul Boeing-777s.
The National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil) will be able to save more than 30 per cent on its interest payment per year, as the finance ministry recently agreed to furnish sovereign guarantees on loans raised by the company which runs Air India.
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.
The Air India board is likely to give its approval to the appointment of global consultancy firm, Booz Allen and Company, for its cost restructuring plan.
Public insurer New India Assurance has accused the troubled NACIL of flouting the tender norms for about Rs 45,000-crore (Rs 450 billion) insurance cover for Air India's fleet to favour a consortium led by an Anil Ambani group firm, which refuted the allegation.
On Saturday, the National Aviation Company of India Limited issued a circular stating that it has taken a decision to defer the payment of June salary and PLI by 15 days due to liquidity crunch.
With no equity infusion from the government in sight and the company posting losses to the tune of Rs 2,154 crore (Rs 21.54 billion) in FY'08, the National Aviation Company of India (NACIL) has tightened its purse-strings.
The government has not taken any decision on the communications ministry's proposal for appointing the next chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
"We have successfully carried out the 'C check' on two of our B-777 aircraft and work on the third one is expected to be completed within a month," National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) SBU-Head (Engineering), K M Unni, told media persons in Mumbai.
"I recently flew on one of our aircraft and I was pleasantly surprised. Our aeroplanes are brand new and a pleasure to travel on. They can give any airline a run for their money," says Raghu Menon.
The National Aviation Company of India (NACIL), the entity that came into being after the merger of national carriers Air India and Indian, has increased its working capital limit to around Rs 9,500 crore (Rs 95 billion) in order to meet the recent hikes in fuel prices.
The biggest private petroleum company had lost the tender due to OMCs adopting a uniform strategy of differential discounts at different locations. Asked, CCI officials were not available for a comment.
Arvind Jadhav, a senior IAS officer and the current CMD of Air India, was sent back to parent Karnataka cadre.
In a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi, he sought permission to step down from the board of National Aviation Company of India Ltd.
State-owned National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs Air India, has approached the government to raise $2.3 billion through external commercial borrowings (ECBs) as part of a plan to restructure its high-cost working capital debt.
Sky marshals could soon be grounded if some private airlines keep dawdling over the former's maintenance.
As a pre-requisite, the airline has taken the first step by appointing four independent directors to the state-owned company's expanded 13-member board. Stock exchange listing requirements mandate that one-third of a company's board must consist of independent directors.
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).
Plans to rake in Rs 900 crore from marketing engineering, cargo & training services.
Cash-strapped Air India, whose management has been considering slashing salaries and allowances of its employees, has signed an MoU with its officers' association to pay interim relief which would put an annual burden of Rs 36 crore.
A section of Air India employees have deferred its proposed strike from December 22 following an assurance from the NACIL management to look into their grievances. The employees owing allegiance to the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), which is one of the unions of the erstwhile Indian Airlines, had on December 7 threatened to go on strike from December 22 alleging that the management had violated a conciliation pact signed with its representatives.
E.K. Bharat Bhushan has assumed charge as chairman & managing director of the National Aviation Company of India Limited.
The COO's compensation package will be negotiable, based on qualification and experience in the industry. But he will also be given a performance-linked pay based on key performance indicators determined by the management or the board.
Hardening their stand, Air India unions said on Thursday they were not willing to renegotiate on the proposed wage cut by the management. NACIL is the holding company of the state-run airline and was formed after the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines.
While the civil aviation ministry's activist supervision of the airline's functioning is said to be responsible for much of the mess, the airline management has its own sins to answer for.
A group of Air India unions on Friday asked Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to fix the accountability on those who are "sabotaging" the airlines merger process
Kingfisher Airlines, National Aviation Company of India Limited -- the state-owned company that runs Air India -- and Indigo could face additional cost pressures, with reinsurance rates expected to harden following the accident involving the Air France aircraft that was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 passengers on board.
National Aviation Company Ltd (Nacil), the entity formed by the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines, has failed to keep up to its promise -- it is yet to provide equal access to a large part of the 30,000 employees under its fold.
NACIL had submitted a proposal in October 2008 for equity infusion of Rs 1,231 crore (Rs 12.31 billion) and provision of soft loan of Rs 2,750 crore (Rs 27.5 billion), with an interest of approximately 5 per cent payable over 15 years.
Cash-strapped Air India will have to raise Rs 8,165 crore (Rs 81.65 billion) out of its own resources or borrowings to fund its fleet acquisition programme as the Union Budget focused primarily on aviation infrastructure development, giving a total budgetary support of Rs 190 crore (Rs 1.9 billion).
As revealed by the airline in response to a Right to Information application, Nacil paid Rs 93.29 crore (Rs 932.9 million) towards salaries and expenses to the agencies, which provided expatriate pilots to Air India and Air India Express last year.
The board meeting of the state-owned airlines was also attended by Arvind Jadhav, for the first time since he took over as Nacil CMD after the sudden exit of erstwhile chairman Raghu Menon from the company. However, sources in the company said no final decision could be taken as the issue would be discussed with the new government and the civil aviation ministry.