Nearly 80 domestic and international flights received bomb threats in less than 24 hours that later turned out to be hoaxes, keeping thousands of passengers and security agencies on tenterhooks.
In a LinkedIn post on Wednesday, February 15, night, Nipun Aggarwal had said Air India, in addition to the order of 470 planes, had the option to purchase 370 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing.
According to Boeing, India would need 1,940 single-aisle planes worth $220 billion and 350 wide-body aircraft valued at $100 billion.
Scheduled international passenger flights to and from India remain suspended since March 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. The suspension has been extended till November 30.
Sale of wide-body aircraft will not affect internatinal flights, says Jet
Indian Airlines on Wednesday decided to dry-lease 12 wide-bodied aircraft between this October and March next year to launch services to new international routes and augment services to the existing ones.
Tata Group-owned Air India has informed the Centre that aircraft lessors wish to set up their special purpose vehicles (SPVs) outside India since they aren't enthused about the Indian 'legal structure' and are loath to take risks. Indian airlines have a combined fleet of about 700 planes; over 85 per cent are on lease. A majority of lessors are based in Ireland due to its attractive tax policy, light-touch regulations, and swift legal system.
'The funds were arranged from multiple banks at a very competitive rate and converted into dollars at the best rates.'
"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.
It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service.
On May 28, following the bomb threat, which later turned out to be hoax, all the passengers were evacuated through emergency slides from the aircraft at the Delhi airport.
Indian Airlines plans to connect London as part of its global expansion plans and would lease 12 wide-bodied aircraft for long haul operations.\n
Jet Airways is talking to several leading private equity firms to raise $400 million through qualified institutional placements for its aircraft acquisition plan.
It offers a real opportunity for the flag carrier to compete on the world stage, backed by a leading conglomerate with deep pockets like the Tatas, observes Indrajit Gupta.
Demand from premium traffic in Europe, US remained subdued as the global slowdown continues, pushing the airline to slash prices.
Jet Airways, India's top private carrier, says it is in talks to lease two or three wide-bodied aircraft from Boeing or Airbus for its long-haul international routes starting in April.
Pilots' bodies at Tata Group-owned Air India have accused the airline management of making unilaterally "rapid" and "regressive" changes in the service conditions of pilots. In a letter to Air India Chief Human Resources Officer Suresh Dutt Tripathi on Tuesday, Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) and Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) also stated that "all unilateral violations of their rights and service agreements are creating industrial unrest and shattering employee confidence in the current management". The communication comes amid Air India reducing drastically the annual limit of privilege leave accumulation to 60 days from 300 days earlier, as per a source.
A strong demand for revocation of reservation and other benefits to tribals who convert to other religions was made in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Air India's pilot unions on Monday alleged that working conditions are hostile at the airline and sought Tata group chairman N Chandrasekaran's intervention to resolve the issues. Tata group took control of loss-making Air India in January this year. The two pilot unions -- IPG and ICPA -- claimed that despite its unflinching support extended to Air India in its growth and expansion plan, the management has not reciprocated in the same manner.
The last date to submit bids is March 17 but the deadline could be extended if there are requests from potential bidders.
The last couple of years of frenzied activity in the MRO space made many believe that time is not far when umpteen number of MROs will start servicing narrow and wide-bodied aircraft on the Indian soil like motor garages. While many of the projects announced over the last couple of years have not seen the light of the day, Aviation firm AirWorks which launched India's first MRO in airline segment at Hosur (Tamil Nadu) is yet to land their first anchor customer.
To attract bidders, the government had decided to hive of around Rs 35,000 crore of the company's debt into a separate subsidiary, leaving around Rs 23,286 crore to be absorbed by the new bidder.
IndiGo's share sale will raise the company's retained earnings to Rs 2,680 crore.
Both Jet Airways and Go First have met with a similar fate of landing up in insolvency, albeit for different reasons. Whether Go First will be able to avoid the sharp erosion in value like in the case of Jet, experts say, will depend on how quickly it is able to restart operations and retain its slots at airports. Go First, owned by the Wadia group, filed for voluntary corporate insolvency resolution on May 2 due to inadequate capacity utilisation that led to a cash crunch.
In face of growing competition in the aviation market, Indian Airlines on Monday said it planned to lease 12 wide-bodied aircraft and six turbo-prop ATRs to launch feeder services.
French aerospace major Thales Group is eyeing major expansion in India. The group has started planning to set up a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) organisation in India to support Indian airlines - many of which are its customers for avionics support. "We are looking to set up an MRO, so that they don't have to travel to West Asia or Singapore. "Final decision is yet to be taken, but this is a clear intent showing the growth potential in India that we are looking to set up a sub-centre here," said Yannick Assouad, executive vice-president, avionics at Thales, who was on her maiden visit to the group's India office at Bengaluru since taking charge.
The central government has assured the state government of Goa that it will pump in Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) to give a facelift to Dabolim airport.
Jet also recently announced plans to launch direct flights to Brussels this summer, launching itself as a direct rival to Air India on flights between India and Europe.
Private carrier Kingfisher Airlines hopes to fly to international destinations by mid 2007, once it receives delivery of Airbus A-330 wide-bodied aircraft.
With three more leased wide-bodied aircraft in its fleet, Air-India would launch daily flights from New Delhi to Hong Kong and then connect Seoul and Osaka, along with two flights a week to Shanghai from July 7.
The government on Thursday said the issue of an initial public offering of Air-India and Indian Airlines was at a preliminary stage of discussion.
Air India on Tuesday signed agreements with Airbus and Boeing for acquiring 470 planes for an estimated $70 billion at list prices. The Tata Group-owned airline had announced that it will buy 470 aircraft, including wide-body planes, in February this year. The "firm orders include 34 A350-1000, 6 A350-900, 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 10 Boeing 777X widebody aircraft, as well as 140 Airbus A320neo, 70 Airbus A321neo and 190 Boeing 737MAX narrow-body aircraft," the airline said in a release.
The airlines is in talks with Oman Air and Etihad.
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