The vigilance cases ranged from stealing liquor and caviar and flying for other airlines while on the rolls of the national carrier to inflated bills and making claims for bogus attendance.
Sale, leaseback of aircraft fetch Air India $150 million; funds to be used to partly repay bridge loan.
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).
Air India has positioned its fares on par with airlines offering one-stop services to US.
Out of the total amount, Rs 17,359.77 crore is aircraft loan, while Rs 31,517.04 crore is working capital loan.
State-owned Air India has approached the ministry of finance for a sovereign guarantee to raise Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) from banks, due to the government's inability to infuse all the required funds into the debt-laden carrier, given the current economic conditions.
The government is considering several routes like enacting a law or getting a court order or simply issuing an ordinance for merging the two state-owned carriers -- Indian and Air-India, official sources said on Tuesday.
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.
Plans to rake in Rs 900 crore from marketing engineering, cargo & training services.
An additional lease rental of Rs 200 crore on nine Boeing 787 Dreamliners was the reason for ending in the red this quarter, Arindam Majumder reports from New Delhi.
'There's an urgent requirement, particularly for the Indian Ocean region, as China's naval presence grows, and with Pakistan also acquiring more submarines.'
State-owned oil marketing companies on Wednesday stopped jet fuel supplies to Air India in the four metros after cheques from the national carrier towards payment for fuel bounced, raising fears that the airline's flight schedules might be badly disrupted.
Cooking oil is often discarded after being used for frying at home or in restaurants. However, a refinery of IndianOil has now won a certification to use the same oil to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the company chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney said.
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.
Softening its rigidity, Indian Air Force has now agreed to release its pilots to civil aviation stream in a phased manner in the face of acute shortage being faced by state-owned carriers.
Unlike private carriers such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, Air India has not given any security as insurance against default, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.
SBI set to buy residential properties of Air India in south Mumbai
'The target for next year is unlikely to be more than that of this year. The more you divest in any cycle, the less your potential pipeline for the next,' said an official. 'The first two issues we want to tackle and complete in FY20 are Air India and Hotel Ashok.'
Only nine of the airline's 370 daily flights were making profits.
In just the last quarter, the airline's market share has fallen from 17.8 per cent to 16.9 per cent.
The unions say they have been forced to do this because the loss-making state-owned airline's management has not taken the unions in confidence before presenting its revival plan to the government.
The former Indian Airlines pilot won a good deal for colleagues protesting a pay cut; but others question whether the victory was good for the airline.
China is set to build a rail link connecting Xinjiang province with Tibet, part of which will run near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India.
IOC, BPCL and HPCL on Thursday afternoon stopped ATF supplies to Air India at six airports - Kochi, Pune, Patna, Ranchi, Vizag and Mohali - over payment defaults. AI flights from these places were tanking up from other airports.
The victim, R Sukumar said that the MP should be punished so that they should not take it as their birthright to assault a person.
Of the total outstanding of Rs 4,064.77 crore, a sum of Rs 2,571.73 crore (Rs 25.71 billion) is overdue payment, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
Not needed, it says, with 4,600 staffers to retire over next 3 years, plus transfer of 12,000 to new subsidiaries
Banking sources said IDBI Bank, along with another banks, was syndicating the loan. The move came after Air India failed to get funding interest from European commercial banks despite the loan carrying sovereign guarantees. The European banks' reluctance reflects how lenders have turned risk averse when it comes to aviation funding.
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.
As of now, Air India serves sandwich (both vegetarian and non-vegetarian) and cake on its flights, which are up to 90 minutes of duration, which will be discontinued from January 1, 2016, replaced with "all vegetarian" hot meal, an airline circular said.
Air India (AI) plans to raise Rs 5,500 crore (Rs 55 billion) by issuing bonds to a consortium led by the country's largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, as part of its financial restructuring exercise.
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.
In a bid to lower its staff cost, Air India has started sacking under-performing employees. The civil aviation ministry has made it clear to the national carrier to cut down unwanted expenditure in order to get government's support.
The CMD's focus on raising employee morale and cutting costs is paying off. The airline's operating losses have shrunk and earnings are looking up
The Indian Commercial Pilots Association decided not to resort to any industrial action as planned from May 10.
Sources said valuation of all these assets was an ongoing process, and the mode and manner of disposal would be decided on a case-by-case basis
The biggest challenge is not the airline's debt, but downsizing its 16,800 employees, says Surajeet Dasgupta.
From highways connecting once-remote regions to aviation networks carrying millions, India's infrastructure story is one of transformation.
Air India is in a better state now than it was when Lohani's predecessor took over in 2011, four years after a merger with state-run carrier Indian Airlines.
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