In India, many players are in the throes of chaos and pain but at least one partnership -- Air Asia India -- that was fraying even before the pandemic now finds itself at breaking point, says Anjuli Bhargava.
Approval was held up due to CBI investigation into international flying permit of Tata group-owned AirAsia India.
The top hashtag in India was #COVID19, as the country grappled with the deadly second wave of the pandemic.
After a hiatus of nearly two decades, the government's programme to privatise state-owned firms restarted with the handing over of debt-laden national carrier Air India to the Tata Group. With the new owner shelling out Rs 18,000 crore for the buyout of the 'Maharaja', this would be the highest-ever amount garnered through privatisation, and is even more than the cumulative sum mopped up through strategic sales from 1999-00 to 2003-04. The government had in October last year inked the share purchase agreement with the Tata Group for sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Tatas would pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt.
This is the largest single dose of equity infusion into the joint venture since its launch in January 2015.
The airline has been defaulting on salaries for some time, making partial payments in some cases or not paying at all, as it continues to lose money mainly in domestic routes where it can't raise fares facing competition from low-cost airlines.
The country needs 100 million jobs in the formal sector in the next decade to take advantage of its demographic dividend. Also, it should get into the global supply chain to generate many of those by negotiating trade deals effectively, industry players and experts have said. "We need something like 100 million jobs in the next 10 years, which means that the non-agriculture sector has to generate 14 per cent job growth every year," said Aditya Ghosh, co-founder of Akasa Airlines, at the Global Economic Policy Summit organised by the CII.
The government in January restarted the divestment process of Air India and invited bids for selling 100 per cent of its equity in the state-owned airline, including Air India's 100 per cent shareholding in AI Express Limited and 50 per cent in Air India SATS Airport Services Private Ltd.
With respect to the cancelled flights, customers can opt for a full refund or alternative travel dates free of cost.
By 2023, Vistara's hangars will house a total of 70 aircraft, up from the current 42.
Right from the early days of liberalisation, there have been political controversies surrounding several cases that landed on the FIPB table and which, in turn, have often led to court battles.
A Delhi court on Saturday sent Shankar Mishra, accused of urinating on a woman co-passenger on an Air India flight, to judicial remand for 14 days while rejecting a plea by police for his custody.
Apart from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, the codeshare agreement with Lufthansa will cover Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi and Pune.
Naresh Goyal, after being ousted with his wife from the board last week, and with his shareholding halved to 25 per cent, can still make a comeback by partnering a new investor and win back majority control.
'I've always wanted to be a pilot; setting records is the icing on the cake.'
A family man, a confident investor, someone who was sure two decades ago that India and its stock market were going to boom. T N Ninan recalls his chats with Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
It's too big to digest as one whole airline.'
J R D Tata's flight carrying mail between the two cities was the first by an Indian company and it opened the air link to peninsular India.
The Delhi-based airline currently has 13 Airbus A320 aircraft in the fleet and it plans to take another seven (A320 Neo) planes by June 2018.
AirAsia's Fernandes says CEO for India will be an Indian; proposed airline firm with Tata may hit ministry hurdle
Tata's Vistara has a very strong core team to look into daily operations.
The inaugural flight took off in the presence of Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Mahesh Sharma, along with a number of other people.
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.
SpiceJet has decreased its domestic services by 31 per cent to 2,995 weekly flights in the upcoming winter schedule as compared to 4,316 weekly flights that it got approved for the winter schedule of 2019, the aviation regulator DGCA said on Thursday. Meanwhile, Vistara, another private carrier, has increased its domestic services by 22 per cent to 1,675 weekly flights as compared to 1,376 weekly flights for 2019 winter schedule, the regulator added. The winter schedule begins on October 31 of a year and ends on March 26 next year.
Over 70 per cent of Jet's fleet has been grounded, leading to massive cancellations.
Bhattacharjee in a handwritten complaint to the airlines had stated that the distressed passenger was made to go back to her soiled seat despite four seats in the First Class being vacant.
One thing is certain: The part-Goan, part-Malayali group CEO of Air Asia is not your usual boardroom CEO, and he cultivates the maverick businessman image, buying race car teams and football clubs and taking off-beat bets with his mentor and now buddy Richard Branson of Virgin.
From attacking Pramod Mahajan and Smriti Irani and participating in Bigg Boss, Sanjay Nirupam has plunged into an ugly controversy with his latest remark.
The petition will come up for hearing on Tuesday.
Reduction in fuel price was supposed to bring back good luck for Indian airlines. But with the global spread of coronavirus, airlines are being forced to rejig their network, cut flights, and delay launches.
AirAsia India began operations in June 2014.
The new owner may be allowed to dispose of assets accruing from the 10-26 per cent of the net assets of the company.
According to sources, Vistara was looking at commencing operations on Oct 15 to commemorate J R D Tata's flight from Karachi to Mumbai on the same date in 1932.
Earlier, budget carrier SpiceJet said it would hire 500 from Jet, including 100 pilots. Air India Express has also inducted around 25 commanders from the grounded airline.
This is the first time that AirAsia chief has raised concerns about the dual airline strategy of the Tata group, his partner.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw posted the matter for hearing on Friday.
Currently, Vistara has more than 22 planes and operates around 850 flights every week.
Ahead of two crucial audits, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has proposed to allow deputy director generals (DGs) and officers of Indian Air Force (IAF) to apply for the post of chief of India's aviation regulator. The current head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Arun Kumar, has been promoted as secretary and is expected to move out some time soon. DGCA has four Deputy DGs with experience in different fields of aviation.
No-frills carrier IndiGo has expressed interest to buy Air India
Vistara starts flying in India.
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