The slot constraint in Indian airports is also going to play a role in pushing airlines to have wide bodies.
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.
Indian customers will have wider travel options as airlines introduce new flights from the end of March. While Malaysian Airlines and Turkish Airlines are resuming passenger flights to India after a gap of two years, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Group will scale up their existing service in a graded manner in the summer schedule. Emirates, the largest foreign airline operating in India, too, is looking to restore its pre-Covid-19 schedule of 172 flights per week.
A revamped Air India under the Tata Group will be a real challenge while new airline Akasa Air will be a far less competitive force for the next two-three years, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said on Wednesday. Akasa Air, which is backed by former IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and former Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube, got the no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday.
Except GoAir, all other Indian airlines have opened bookings for their domestic flights that will start operating from May 25. GoAir will open bookings on domestic flights from June 1 onwards.
Shivani Shinde reports. The youngest member of the Tata group, the much-awaited Tata Neu, has finally been launched for people across the country. The 'super app' offers a number of services ranging from financial services to tech, travel and even groceries. The app takes off with a customer base of 120 million, with 2,500 offline stores. According to the Tata group, the app will be a one-stop destination for all consumer needs. The super app also offers a bouquet of financial offers like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), bill payments, loans and insurance. Tata Neu will also provide other services like fashion, gadgets, groceries, travel and health.
Business executives are finally dusting off their long-unused suitcases to resume travel, thanks to a good vaccination rate, a drop in fresh cases, and an easing of travel restrictions. It comes as a huge relief for the ravaged aviation, travel and hospitality sectors. "We are witnessing a 40 per cent recovery on pre-covid volumes from our business travellers, signalling the return of corporate confidence in air travel," said Indiver Rastogi, president & group head, Global Business Travel, Thomas Cook (India) & SOTC.
The Maharashtra government has banned the use of single disposable items made from plastic such as spoons, forks, cups, glasses. Plastic bags and wrap used for packaging or storing products too is covered under ban.
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.
They say better late than never. For the Tatas, the original owners of Air India, bringing back the airline to its fold is worth the wait even if the attempt to privatise the bleeding national carrier by successive governments has taken over two decades. While many airlines have come and gone from the Indian skies since the time when the first move was made to privatise Air India to date, the salt-to-software conglomerate has never let the love affair with aviation, more so with Air India that its former chairman Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (JRD) had, to go off the radar. It is said that Tata group executives used to complain in private that JRD -- the pioneer of the Indian aviation industry -- spent more time worrying about Air India than the Tata group when he was heading both the entities.
"The strategic divestment transaction of Air India successfully concluded today with transfer of 100 per cent shares of Air India to M/s Talace Pvt Ltd along with management control," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in a tweet. A new board, led by the strategic partner, takes charge of Air India, he added.
People familiar with the development said the Indians were flown back to Delhi as part of India's mission to evacuate its citizens and Afghan partners from Kabul following its takeover by the Taliban over a week back.
However, airlines will need to sell 20 per cent seats below midpoint of the fare band on each flight instead of 40 per cent as mandated earlier.
This is the first time domestic players have announced steep cuts.
The first flight to land at the Delhi airport from London on Friday was Air India's AI112 that had 256 passengers in it, said Gauri Agarwal, founder of the Genestrings Diagnostic Center.
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.
There were inordinate delays during baggage check which led to long queues and flight delays.
While airlines are seeing improved demand and industry-wide seat occupancy has increased to over 60%, it is road trips which are generating higher traction. Booking trends show that customers are also choosing homestays or four- star and five-star accommodations, as hygiene and safety is a priority now.
Most airlines lose 30 pilots a year. Vistara has lost only 2 in 18 months.
If that happens, Jet Airways will be the first bankrupt airline which will be revived under the Insolvency process.
IndiGo, Vistara, Air India, SpiceJet have cancelled their flights, while GoAir and AirAsia India announced waiving date change/ cancellation fee.
IndiGo maintained its lead position with 49 per cent share of the domestic passenger market in May. SpiceJet's market share increased to 14.8 per cent in May, giving it the number two spot. The market share of Air India, GoAir, AirAsia and Vistara were 13.5 per cent, 11.1 per cent, 6.3 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively, in May this year.
The summer schedule of flights of all other domestic airlines such as Vistara, IndiGo, Air India and GoAir have been approved till October 26.
The move by four airlines -- IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir -- to suspend the stand-up comedian raises fears that the government can use the no-fly list to settle political scores, undermine the freedom of citizens.
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.
IndiGo retained its No. 1 position amongst domestic airlines growing its market share.
Full-service airlines may have been making huge losses in India, but Tata Sons and Jet Airways are raring to give the model a second chance.
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.
The Tata group may have to deploy upwards of $1 billion to improve the airline's passenger reservation system, upgrade and refurbish Air India's fleet, primarily the wide-body aircraft which are the mainstay for the airline's international operations, people in the know said. While the group has not yet decided on how it intends to integrate Air India with its existing airlines AirAsia India and Vistara, sources said the first task will be to refinance Air India's existing loans, upgrade its aircraft gradually, and rewrite multiple business contracts with vendors and suppliers. "They will have to do 100 things to stabilise the airline and will have to put in a lot of money," DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said, confirming that many aircraft are grounded.
In what is amongst the first focused fund in the space, India Media Entertainment Fund (IMEF) is raising Rs 500 crore, which will provide both equity as well as instruments like non-convertible debentures (NCD) to companies in the content, distribution platform and services areas. The private equity fund has appointed a high-profile advisory body which includes ad guru Prahlad Kakkar, managing director of Red Chillies Entertainment and cricket team KKR Sports, actress and entrepreneur Raadhika Sarathkumar, who has starred in Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada films and runs Radaan Mediaworks. It also includes Ramnath Pradeep, former chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank, and Rajesh Gupta, senior partner of law firm SNG Partners.
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.
The new owners of Air India will have to retain all the employees of the national carrier for at least one year post which they can offer a VRS. The gratuity, pension fund and post retirement medical benefits of existing and past employees too would be honoured by the new owner, civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal said. Tata Sons has emerged as the winning bidder for Air India with the government accepting its Rs 18,000 crore offer to acquire 100 per cent of the debt-laden state-run carrier.
Airlines sought a limited period concession of the standing rule of slot allocation, which mandates that firms must operate at least 80 per cent of their allocated slots.
"Tata Sons board is meeting tomorrow (Friday) to consider the proposal to bid for Jet Airways," people in the know of the development told PTI.
However, any progress on the deal depends upon Goyal giving up control of the company.
The recent spate of technical glitches in aircraft has prompted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue an order on July 18, making aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) with category B1/B2 licences the final authorities in certifying planes. This has put the spotlight on the availability of such personnel. According to the order, airlines were resorting to frequent one-off authorisation by the Category A certifying staff at transit stations, which is not in line with existing regulatory provisions.
Malik, who was travelling on Vistara's Mumbai-Delhi flight UK 902 on Tuesday when the incident happened, also complained to the airlines about "poor handling" of wheelchair-bound passengers by the airline staff.
The man was reissued the ticket and allowed to board the flight once the airline staff at the Jaipur airport realised that he is not the comedian who is on the no-fly list of four airlines, including Air India.
The new flights come against the backdrop of the Indian government's move to boost air connectivity with Central Asia and tap the interest of Russian investors in India.
The 39-year-old Vikas Sachdev kept nudging Zaira Wasim's shoulder and continued to move his foot up and down her back and neck during the two hour flight.
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