It offers a real opportunity for the flag carrier to compete on the world stage, backed by a leading conglomerate with deep pockets like the Tatas, observes Indrajit Gupta.
Singapore Airlines on Monday offered air tickets to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Bangkok from Kolkata at a promotional fare between July 22 and August 19.
Low-cost carriers (LCCs) like Air Asia and Ryan Air are among the best because they are frugal, have flexibility in operations and certain standardisation of aircraft and operations.
Go First's lenders have agreed in principle to support the airline's request for Rs 400 crore interim funding to restart its operations. The airline temporarily halted operations on May 2, and its insolvency plea was admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on May 10. On Wednesday, the airline's resolution professional Shailendra Ajmera submitted a business plan and a request for over Rs 400 crore funding to airline's committee of creditors (CoC).
The government is keeping its options open.
Singapore-based Tiger Airways, offering low fare service, on Tuesday announced its first flight to India between Chennai and Singapore.
Singapore Airlines' Midnight Escapades offers economy class return tickets to Australia at Rs 20,000, plus taxes.
Sri Lankan Airlines is offering a special package from Mumbai to Colombo at Rs 14,000, plus taxes.
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.
On Monday, the ministry withdrew foreign traffic rights it had granted to Kingfisher Airlines.
This is the largest single dose of equity infusion into the joint venture since its launch in January 2015.
The new routes will expand AirAsia's connectivity to more than 80 destinations across the continent, and provide additional connections for its sister airline AirAsia X, which is due to fly from Australia's Gold Coast on November 2, to Guangzhou, China at the end of the year, and to Melbourne and London next year. Prices for the Singapore flights are expected to start at 9.90 ringgit (Rs 120) for return trips.
European airports are wooing Indian airlines in the wake of intense competition from aviation hubs such as Dubai and Doha.
There could be a fare war in the Indian skies to beat competition from Vistara.
From limousine pick-ups to on-board chefs, Asia's premium airlines are investing hundreds of millions of dollars on luxury services.
A consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) has agreed to provide loans to Tata Group for the smooth operations of loss-making Air India. Tata Group, which won the bid to acquire the national carrier along with Air India Express and 50 per cent stake in AISATS in October last year, is expected to formally takeover the airline on Thursday. Sources said the SBI-led consortium has agreed to grant both term loans and working capital loans depending on the airline's requirements. All large lenders, including Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, and Union Bank of India, are part of the consortium, they added.
Singapore-based airline SilkAir plans to launch thrice a week flights from Singapore to Coimbatore from October. The proposal is still subject to government approval.
Ajit Singh says will seek cabinet nod to scrap 5-year, 20 aircraft rule.
Tata Group's takeover of loss-making national carrier Air India is most likely delayed by a month till January as the completion of procedures taking longer than expected, an official said on Monday. In October, the government accepted the highest bid made by a Tata Sons company for 100 per cent equity shares of Air India and Air India Express along with its 50 per cent stake in ground-handling company AISATS -- the first privatisation in 20 years. At that time, the government had stated that it wanted to complete the transactions, which included Tatas paying Rs 2,700 crore in cash, by December end.
The interiors of the world's biggest passenger airline, the Airbus A 380 resemble a luxury hotel.
AirAsia is expanding its distribution network and increasing its offline travel partners.
Singapore Airlines is offering a scholarship for a two-year pre-university course in selected junior colleges in Singapore.
Jio has partnered with AeroMobile to launch mobile services on 22 flights on international routes, with plans starting at Rs 499 per day.
Foreign carriers leveraged the sixth freedom rights to grab Indian market share.
When the Tatas re-boarded Air India on January 27 last year, the price of aviation turbine fuel was at over Rs 80,000 per kilolitre. Rupee was trading at around Rs 74 to a US dollar. The Omicron variant of Covid-19 was in prevalence - barely a week earlier, India had reported over 340,000 cases on a single day. Seven-day home quarantine of international travellers was the norm.
The move to increase sales comes ahead of Tata- Singapore Airlines' entry in the domestic market.
With Air India's July 31 deadline to join Star Alliance approaching, senior officials of the global umbrella body of airline and those from the national carrier would soon meet Indian government officials to discuss the progress made in this direction.
Aviation Turbine Fuel or jet fuel in Delhi, the city that houses the nation's second busiest airport, costs $1,291 per kilolitre while the same in Singapore is sold at $1,067 per kl. It costs $1,100 per kl in Hong Kong and $1,113 in Colombo.
The government has notified the agreement between Air India and special purpose vehicle AIAHL for the transfer of non-core assets, ahead of the national airline's takeover by the Tata Group. The government had in October last year, inked the share purchase agreement with the Tata Group for the sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. The Tata Group is expected to take full control of the airline, it founded in 1932, on Thursday. The cash component of the deal would come once the handover process is completed. The Tata Group would pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt.
Despite no real change in the economics governing their industry, coinciding with the lean season, low fares on domestic sectors -- as promised by the airlines -- are suddenly back. The drop in fares, in many instances, is quite significant.
Commercial operations of the largest aircraft, Airbus A-380, will begin in India from May 30, with Singapore Airlines on Monday announcing it would start daily flights of the superjumbo to Mumbai and Delhi from then.
International no-frills budget carriers making a beeline for India.
Singapore Airlines' Super Deals offers economy class return tickets to Beijing/ Shanghai/ Nanjing in China at Rs 18,299, plus taxes.
Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo and AirAsia India ready to fill in the gap.
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