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.
The airline with a 66-aircraft fleet said on Monday that it would be inducting 16 planes this year and the remaining 12 by 2014.
While Air India employees are contributing a day's salary to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, its pilots have offered to forego their allowances to operate to Dehradun.
In the preceding quarter, the airline had posted a profit of Rs 9.64 crore supported by non-passenger revenues.
Thai AirAsia operates a daily flight between the Indian and Thai capitals, besides a weekly flight between Kolkata and Bangkok.
Any rise in charges has to be approved by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, which is examining MIAL's proposal.
IndiGo which has close to 40 per cent market share, at present has 129 aircraft and operates 883 daily flights to 44 destinations. It also has around 400 aircraft on order.
The overall domestic air travel markets expanded four per cent in 2012 compared to 2011.
The domestic airlines industry is estimated to have posted losses to the tune of over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in the previous fiscal, nearly 18 per cent down from a year ago.
With this, the biggest buyer of Airbus SE A320neo planes seems to be moving away from Pratt & Whitney engines, which have been experiencing glitches. CFM International will deliver the first engine by 2020.
Tata Sons has started the process of due diligence of state-owned Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express. Sources said the group has appointed Bain and Company and Seabury Group for this purpose. Once complete, a financial bid will be submitted and a deal to take over the airline is likely to fructify by end of this year or even earlier, people involved in the process said. Simultaneously, the group has brought in veterans in the aviation business from Delta and United Airlines to prepare a plan for post-merger integration of Air India with its existing airline ventures. Tata Sons operates Vistara - a 51:49 percent joint venture with Singapore Airlines and Air Asia India, in which Tatas hold 83.67 per cent stakes.
Foreign carriers to pick up staff from cash-strapped SpiceJet.
.jpg)
The proposal of Tatas and Singapore Airlines for a new joint venture, entailing foreign investment of $49 million, is likely to come up before the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for approval on October 18.
The main road that leads from Sitapur Road side to the airport has been decked up with several posters carrying images of Prime Minister Modi, and a welcome message.
'The need for added safety has bolstered demand for charter flights in the last year and is expected to continue.'
Given all the risks in the world today, including the political instability, economic uncertainty, public health emergence and terrorism, there is not much buffer to absorb a significant change for the worse in the operating environment
Aviation is a juicy target. It's a 24x7 industry, which cannot afford delays or loss of customer credibility.
Avani or SpiceJet: which is the love of his life? For Ajay Singh, that's a tough one to answer.
This was good enough for Fernandes to hire Chandilya to lead his India business.
Days after low-cost carrier AirAsia announced it would launch its India operations by the end of the year, IndiGo Airlines President Aditya Ghosh, 38, tells Sudipto Dey in an interaction why his airline is not one that should be worried.
Air India had stopped the practice of issuing tickets on credit to government agencies for the travel of their officials in December last year because of accruing pending bills.
IndiGo, India's largest airline, is in talks to raise fresh funds as a second wave of pandemic has led to collapse in travel demand. The airline may look to raise Rs 3,500-4,000 crore. On Monday, only 97,761 passengers flew. With flyers cancelling bookings, airlines had to put aside flights and operated only 1,306 of them.
Pakistan has declined to allow the use of its airspace for flights from Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, sources said.
In Dubai, A Ganesh Nadar encountered high speeds on smooth-as-silk-roads, no bureaucracy, gold, Mr Toad's. And snow!
The new low-cost carrier, IndiGo, which placed India's biggest orders for 100 Airbus aircraft at the Paris Air Show last year, will start operations in July-August with its own aeroplanes.
Airlines likely to be allowed to operate with smaller aircraft.
SpiceJet has cut capacity by reducing its fleet to 35 Boeing 737 aircraft from 42 in December.
Though NCLT has extended window to find a buyer, bankers don't see much hope of a deal.
In June IndiGo had implemented a mandatory leave without pay program for 1.5 days to 5 days. Subsequently, in July, IndiGo announced 5.5 additional days of LWP for its pilots, taking the effective number of LWP to 10 days. As cost cutting measure, the airline had also let go of 10 per cent of its employees and implemented a pay cut across the board.
The order, valued at 'nearly $9 billion at list prices', was signed at Dubai Air Show 2021 on Tuesday.
India saw a huge surge in ransomware and IoT cyber attacks in the first half of 2023, as criminals shifted to stealthier means of malicious activities, according to a report by SonicWall. While major economies like the US and the UK witnessed a decline in ransomware attacks, India (up 133 per cent) and Germany (52 per cent) are among the countries that saw a huge surge in such attacks, the 2023 SonicWall Mid-Year Cyber Threat Report for the January-June period stated. At the global level, a variety of other attacks have trended up, including cryptojacking (399 per cent), IoT malware (37 per cent) and encrypted threats (22 per cent), the report said.
Unlikely to happen in less than a year,despite the advantage of the parent airline's base.
An integrated team of 200 staff crunches data to minimise disruption for 149 planes, but airport infrastructure poses a challenge
Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) has moved the Insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT against the approval of bids for defunct airline Jet Airways. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) bench has issued a notice over the PNB's petition along with its interim plea seeking a stay over the execution of the resolution plan. A three-member bench has directed the Resolution Professional of Jet Airways along with other parties including the Committee of Creditors to file a reply within two weeks and rejoinder, if by PNB, within one week.
An overriding ambition to rule the domestic skies prevented Jet Airways from becoming a strong and formidable player in the international market. The Sahara buy added to the complexity of its operations and a dilution of what the airline stood for, says Anjuli Bhargava.
Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh discusses the airline's expansion plans and challenges with Alnoor Peermohamed.
IndiGo's situation points to a deeper malaise where skill shortage can challenge India's status as the fastest-growing aviation market, say experts.
At the recently concluded Dubai airshow, Akasa, Rakesh Radheyshyam Jhunjhunwala's new airline, signed a $9 billion deal with American aircraft maker Boeing to buy its 737 MAX planes and a $4 billion one for engines with CFM, a joint venture between GE of the US and Safran of France. Unlike his financial doppelganger Warren Buffett, who divested billions from his airline stock portfolio at the start of the pandemic, Jhunjhunwala is wagering his billions in a brand new airline. The legendary investor bought a roughly 40 per cent stake in SNV Aviation in September, Akasa's holding company, started in March by three former Jet Airways colleagues. With aviation still to recover from its pandemic slump, the big question around his foray into domestic aviation, due to take off in summer 2022, is whether it is another pie in the sky.
Inactive crew members are employees who are on any kind of leave be it casual, medical or privilege.
The airline has closed reservation for flights to Silchar, Imphal, Aizawl, Jorhat in northeastern states from mid-February. Reservation has also been closed for flights to Madurai, Visakhapatnam, Raipur, Muscat and Sharjah.
