Civil aviation ministry has also reached a consensus to give a five-year term to the next CMD of the ailing state-owned airline.
'The Modi government is trying hard to see if it could be sold to a private airline.' 'But it appears there are no takers.' 'If no buyer comes forward by June, the government will close down Air India,' predicts A K Bhattacharya.
To attract potential suitors, the government will ease asset valuation norms for Air India by allowing bidders to put in offers on an enterprise value basis, a source said on Monday. To begin with, the government is likely to further extend the deadline for putting in a preliminary expression of interest for the loss-making national carrier to December 15. The source said bids will be sought on an enterprise value basis - a popular valuation methodology for takeover deals.
National carrier Air India will have two maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities for its aircraft, one in Nagpur and the other in Delhi.
Re-rating of Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Container Corporation, Shipping Corporation, SAIL, and Hindustan Copper, for which the government has already shown intent to divest its stake, possible now, say analysts.
'Since the government will not hold any significant stake in the airline this time, such restrictions are not required anymore.'
Cash-strapped Air India should be run by professionals even if the government partially off-loads its stake to investors to keep it off-the-ground, a top global aviation professional has said.
Post handing over of Air India to the Tatas, government officials will be free to book their travel with any airline that offers them the best price. And, the Centre will not have a tie up with any carrier, department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said. "The government is not mandating travel by any particular airline, going forward, after handing over Air India because there won't be any state-owned airline," he said. The department of expenditure (DoE) will soon issue instructions to government departments for official travel as this needs to be done before handing over Air India to the new buyer, he said.
The claims will include three kinds of liabilities: Damage to the aircraft; loss of lives who were aboard the aircraft; including the crew members; and third-party liability because of loss of lives where the aircraft crashed; and cargo liability.
'Air India's privatisation is acceptable as long as its control does not pass on to a foreign entity,' says A K Bhattacharya.
ACEU was derecognised after the airline's ground staff and cabin crew went on strike on May 26 last year.
State ownership of the national carrier has undermined the commercial principles that should drive its operation.
Patel discusses the airline's problems and defends his record.
Will operate in all airports except those in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi
After its unsuccessful bid to sell Air India in 2018, the government this time has decided to offload its entire stake.
Government officials say a shareholding structure has been mandated to discourage non-serious bidders from accessing Air India's data room
Amid the demand from the Union civil aviation ministry for induction of Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) as fresh equity into Air India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said the government is actively considering helping the national carrier.
This is a setback for the divestment process of Air India as no other Indian airline has the capability to fund the process
The Air India building has 22 floors overlooking the Arabian Sea. Many floors are already leased out to other companies and it represents one of the costliest commercial real estate in both the city and the country. Air India made losses of Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) in 2008-09.
Budgetary support of Rs 10,00,000 each was provided to Hotel Corporation India, Aero Club of India and Indira Gandhi Rastriya Uran Akademi.
The proposal to sell the building to state-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust also comes after the government's efforts of Air India strategic disinvestment failed to take off.
Airline told to transfer non-core assets, subsidiaries to special purpose vehicle
To reduce those not even meeting variable costs to 19% of network by March, from 38% five months ago.
According to preliminary information memorandum, Air India's new owner will be asked to list the company in some time
The airline will fly the A320s between the Tier-II and Tier-III cities.
There were concerns in some quarters that the airline would defer the purchase of some aircraft in order to save costs.
The company's operating losses for 2014-15 likely to climb a bit.
Falling jet fuel prices and a revival in domestic traffic growth offer the new CMD a once in a lifetime opportunity.
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.
The airline, which was formed through a merger of international carrier Air India and domestic carrier Indian Airlines announced in 2007, has accumulated losses of Rs 4,334 crore till March 31, of which fiscal 2008-09 will account for almost Rs 3,000 crore.
The Bombay High Court has directed four office-bearers of the Aviation Industry Employees' Guild to resume duties by July 7, in a move that supports Air India's drive against absenteeism.
The government's plan to restructure Air India, the loss-making state-owned airline, includes a proposal to rework the troubled productivity-linked incentive scheme, which accounts for over 45 per cent of the company's Rs 3,000 crore wage bill.
Air India-Singapore Airport Terminal Services, the ground handling arm of the state-owned carrier, will hire 90 per cent of its workforce on contract to start operations at the new terminal of the Delhi airport, according to a senior Air India official. AISATS is a 50:50 profit sharing joint venture between AI and the Singapore-based company. The airline selected SATS as its partner in September 2008.
It is Air India's only profitable subsidiary. In 2016-17, it clocked a profit of over Rs 33.4 crore, earning Rs 620 crore in revenues from its handling operations.
Oil companies last week sent a notice for stopping aviation turbine fuel supplies to Air India at some airports like Calicut and Jaipur, officials said in New Delhi.
Star Alliance is generally reluctant to partner with Gulf airlines, partnering with Air India is the only option for the alliance to enter the Indian market, said a senior Air India executive, who also asked not to be named.
After several failed attempts, the state-owned carrier finally seems to be on track to become profitable as turnaround plan gains traction.
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