With carriers such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines all set to battle it out on international routes, leading expatriates with years of experience in global airlines are now being wooed for top management posts.
Despite sharp erosion in the net worth of airline companies due to losses in the recent past, banks and financial institutions have decided to sanction loans to some of them including Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, while some of the companies in this sector are still waiting.
A Jet Airways spokesperson confirmed the pay cuts but said that the move was only temporary and once the situation improved, it would do a revision. The salary cuts range from 5 to 25 per cent and include the top management. In addition, other perks like car facilities and car maintenance allowances have also been withdrawn from May onwards, the source said.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has submitted replies to the CVC on a series of allegations raised by Nishikant Dubey against the deal and clarified all concerns raised by him, official sources said.
Jet Airways is in talks with Chinese carriers for code-sharing deals to other destinations after it became the first Indian private air carrier to operate a service to China by launching its Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flight. The flight connecting the economic hubs of India and China was formally launched in Shanghai on Monday.
Less than 48 hours after Jet Airways announced the retrenchment of 1,900 employees, the airline has decided to reinstate all the employees. Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal, in the late evening press conference on Thursday, requested all the sacked employees to come back to work from Friday.
Domestic carriers flew 28 per cent more people last month compared to a year ago, as no-frill carrier IndiGo remained the market leader by cornering 28 per cent share.
Move aims to comply with Sebi's norm
Confirming this, Jet Airways' CEO, Wolfgang Prock-Schaeur, said, "In the process of integrating the airlines, which is a must to keep JetLite afloat, there will be a shift of certain employees from JetLite to Jet and the workforce for both the airlines will be combined."
The move will help mop up not more than Rs 10 billion, which is only a fifth of the capital requirement of the industry, led by Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, say experts. The expected investment has been calculated on the basis of a 100 per cent premium on the current valuations of Jet Airways and Kingfisher -- two of the country's largest carriers by market share -- which require over Rs 50 billion.
After massive cancellations of Jet Airways flights during the five-day strike last week, the private carrier has seen a surge in the number of passengers that it has flown in the last three days - thanks to an aggressive discount of up to 50 per cent on some tickets on all its flights.
"Airlines in India like Jet Airways and Air India have firm orders with Boeing for delivery till the year 2011. Now they are planning beyond that in view of expected market growth," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice-president (sales), Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
IndiGo operates 125 flights across 17 destinations with a fleet of 19 brand new Airbus A-320 aircraft. For the full service carrier, Kingfisher, the drop on flights up to 750 km will be Rs 400 to Rs 1,950 from Rs 2,350 earlier. Fares for travelling above 750 km will be down to Rs 2,700 from Rs 3,100.
Jet Airways launched its flights to Muscat and Doha. The daily flight service will operate from Mumbai and Kerala.
New Delhi's move is expected to encourage Beijing to grant long-pending clearance to Air India and Jet Airways to launch flights to Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Shanghai, respectively. Air India already operates to Shanghai.
Flights depart New York at 8:25 pm and arrive in Mumbai at 11:30 pm the following day. Return flights will leave Mumbai at 2:10 am and arrive in New York at 11:55 am the same day.
The unions also suggested banks can extend special and exclusive loans to the airline to pay the salary dues or some subsistence payments to them against proper collateral.
The airline has also finalised its plans to lease out five of its Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft to a Turkish carrier, sources add. The airline has been able to negotiate a premium for the deal in a market where lease premiums have dropped.Domestic carriers are facing turbulent times because of the high crude prices and variable taxation on the air turbine fuel. The problem is now compounded because of a slump in the economy now.
Jet has proactively undertaken certain operational adjustments to its flight schedule, keeping in mind the likely, yet interim non-availability of some aircraft in its fleet in the foreseeable future.
The unions opposed any move to force banks to lend more money to the airline, saying Naresh Goyal is still the promoter and major shareholder with 51 per cent stake and it is his headache to run the company or sell it to someone.
Jet Airways Flight 225 to Chennai was grounded in Toronto on Monday after the police received a bomb threat. A report in Friday's National Post reveals that the police received an anonymous threat less than two hours before the Jet Airways Flight was scheduled to depart from the Pearson International Airport in Toronto.Though the investigators were aware that it might be a hoax threat, they decided to take no chances. Hence, the flight was grounded.
Air travel may get a tad more expensive during the coming festive season with at least one major carrier thinking of raising fares, but the hike is expected to be only in single digit in percentage terms. "We are looking at raising the fares during the festive season. No concrete decision has been taken yet. But the increase will not be very high because of competition. It will not be in double-digit," Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer told reporters.
After getting the permit from China, Jet Airways plans to launch its Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco services from first week of June.Jet Airways is also carrying out talks with several Chinese carriers for partnerships to provide connectivity in the region, on the lines of the one it has with Brussels Airlines for onward journey to other European cities.
Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways launched its first flight for Hong Kong from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai on Monday. Jet Airways is the first private carrier to have started a service to Hong Kong from India.
"The Chinese government has never allowed a third party to operate to the US out of China. This is for the first time that our government negotiated with them to do so. We hope to get the permission from China soon," Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal told reporters. With the launch of San Francisco flight from May 5, Jet Airways would become the first private carrier to operate a non-stop daily flight to Shanghai from country's financial hub of Mumbai.
Come mid-April, India's largest private airline, Jet Airways, will don a fresh look. The Naresh Goyal-promoted airline will have fresh internal and external livery for aircraft to reflect its new corporate image.
Over 1.3 million, or 49% of passengers flew to the US via airports in the Gulf in FY16
Travels to Gulf accounted for 40% of India's international air traffic in 2016.
Indian skies appear a lot safer than the ground. In the air, with fly-by- wire technology in place in most aircraft, the pilot can be fast asleep for certain stretches of the flight and nothing, by and large, will go amiss.
Domestic air traffic logged 14.35 per cent growth in November as compared to the corresponding period last year propelled by the festive season rush.
Air travel is going to be dearer as major airlines have decided to raise the fares by at least 10 per cent besides increasing the fuel surcharge. The move by Air India, Jet Airways, Spicejet and Kingfisher comes in view of rise in prices of aviation turbine fuel by over nine per cent in line with the increase in international crude oil rates.
Jet Airways is all set to spread its wings to Beijing, Milan and Paris within a year. The airline currently flies to London it is the market leader on this route with a robust share of 33 per cent and Brussels, which is also its second hub after Mumbai. Jet will be operating flights to Dubai from New Delhi and Mumbai. Taking on Air India's other strategic market, Goyal also announced the date for the launch of the airline's Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flight.
Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Vistara also operated all women crew flights, though on their domestic network.
Private airline Jet Airways is in talks with Lufthansa Group to float a wholly owned subsidiary for dedicated cargo operations.
Jet-Sahara deal: HC asks govt for documents
Battling to grab market share on international routes, Jet Airways has drawn up plans to make China a hub for flying to popular destinations like San Francisco and Los Angeles on the US west coast and to Vancouver in Canada in the near future. "It is much shorter to fly from China to the US west coast than from Singapore. This way, the yields on the routes will also be higher," said Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal.
Transcript of the weekly market chat.
Domestic airlines have set up call centres/ helpline numbers for its passengers for latest updates on flight delays due to fog in Delhi and the northern region.
The travel agents have demanded refunds for customers
Private carrier Jet Airways has obtained security clearance from American authorities to fly to the United States.
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