Category Archives: Aviation

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister, Civil Aviation, met Manohar Lal Khattar, CM, Haryana, recently and discussed many aviation related issues. After the meeting Scindia revealed that a heli-hub would be developed in Gurugram. Khattar further announced that the Haryana government has decided to reduce value added tax (VAT) rate on sale of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) to 1% from 20%.

Ronojoy Dutta, CEO & Whole Time Director, IndiGo, has said that he is very bullish on international opportunities. “The reason I’m bullish is we have a fantastic geography and our four-corner strategy. We can fly seven hours from Delhi, seven hours from Mumbai, seven hours from Kolkata seven hours from Chennai and that gives us a circle, which goes to something like Moscow, Barcelona, Nairobi, Manila, Beijing, Shanghai. It’s a very wide circle and it’s a high growth circle as well. Most of the traffic right now is carried one stop. Hence, one thing that COVID has taught us is the amount of demand we got from places we hadn’t considered on our radar to the CIS countries to Milan to Manila.”

Sharing an encouraging note on the latest development involving the disinvestment of Air India, Madhavan Menon, Managing Director – Thomas Cook India Group, says, “The 100% disinvestment of Air India along with Air India Express (AIXL) and Air India SATS Airport Services (AISATS) by the Government of India is a significant move that reiterates its commitment towards disinvestment and certainly one that we welcome wholeheartedly. Across our companies at Thomas Cook, SOTC, TCI and our global Destination Management Specialists, we  couldn’t have hoped for a better buyer than the Tata Group who had created a world class airline in 1932, with the Maharaja ruling global skies till it was nationalised in 1953. This move will certainly be a long term play for the Tatas and with noteworthy aviation brands in their portfolio, several strategic options that are available to the team at Bombay House. We look forward to supporting the Tata Group and a re-emergence of the tourism sector with a powerful Indian aviation brand – leading from the front.”  

Air India’s divestment process is finally successful with TATA Sons’ SPV – Talace Pvt Ltd, winning the bid of the national carrier for Rs 18000 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs  (CCEA) – empowered Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM) comprising of Amit Shah Union Minister for Home Affairs and Cooperation; Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs; Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Civil Aviation Minister, approved the highest price bid of M/s Talace Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of M/s Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd for sale of 100% equity shareholding of Government of India in Air India along with equity shareholding of Air India in AIXL and AISATS. The winning bid is for Rs 18,000 crore as Enterprise Value (EV) consideration for AI (100% shares of AI along with AI’s shareholding in AIXL and AISATS).  The transaction does not include non-core assets including land and building, valued at Rs 14,718 crore, which are to be transferred to GoI’s Air India Asset Holding Limited (AIAHL). The process for disinvestment of Air India and its subsidiaries commenced in June 2017 with the ‘in-principle’ approval of CCEA. The first round did not elicit any Expression of Interest. The process re-commenced on 27 January 2020 with issue of Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) and request for Expressions of Interest (EOI). The original construct as per the January 2020 PIM envisaged (i) pre-determined, fixed amount of debt to be retained in AI (with balance to be transferred to Air India Asset Holding Limited (AIAHL) and (ii) the sum of certain identified current and non-current liabilities (other than debt) to be retained in AI and …

German airline Lufthansa on Wednesday received an investor for 2.14 billion euro ($2.47 billion). This will help motivate travel companies looking to weather the after effects of the COVID-19 crisis. The company said that its rights issue was 98.36% subscribed by investors, and the remainder was quickly sold in the open market soon after.

Around 13 companies are sitting with approvals from (SEBI) for their Initial Public Offering (IPOs), which could result in over Rs 13,000 worth of public issues into the primary market. These companies include Go Air, Pradeep Phosphates, and Fincare Small Finance Bank, which could soon come with the public issues, revealed Axis Capital. Within this financial year, around 24 companies have successfully made their stock exchange debuts.

All flights from Pune Airport will not operate for 14 days from 16 October 2021 to 29th October 2021, owing to runway resurfacing works, revealed Airport Authority of India- Pune on its Twitter handle as per the information received from Indian Air Force (IAF).

A recent survey by International Air Transport Association (IATA), air travellers are increasingly frustrated with the COVID-19 travel restrictions. The survey within 11 markets in September showed confidence that the risks of COVID-19 can be effectively managed and that the freedom to travel should be restored. 67% of respondents felt that most country borders should be opened now, up 12 percentage-points from the June 2021 survey.

Air India will be opening Automated Refund through GDS effective 1st Oct 2021, revealed the national carrier in a recent circular shared with the travel trade. “However, there is an out-flow limit been set –the total per-week refund for your agency is limited to average one day sale of the previous week. Refund of one day sale from weekly Sale/remittance is allowed,” mentioned the official communication.

As Mauritius re-opens international borders and tourism starts to rebuild post COVID-19, the government of the Republic of Mauritius is injecting Rs12 billion (US$280million) into Air Mauritius via a loan to provide long term stability for the company. Ken Arian, CEO of Airports Holdings Limited, the parent company of Air Mauritius said: “This new financial arrangement provides Air Mauritius with the stability to rebuild and play a central role in the government’s economic development and tourism plans. It is a vote of confidence in our staff and provides them and our tourism industry with reassurance for the future. Air Mauritius is an iconic global brand and will continue to provide short and long-haul passenger and cargo connectivity to some of our most important global markets.” Passenger and cargo flights will operate between Mauritius and Paris, London, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Antananarivo and Reunion with connecting services available globally. Additional capacity and international routes will be added to meet demand. Air Mauritius expects Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Perth to be introduced later. Domestic services to and from Rodrigues will resume in November 2021. As part of the new structure, the network fleet has been consolidated from 15 aircraft to 9 aircraft – 4 x A350-900 and 2 x A330-900neo wide-bodied fleet. The remaining 3 aircraft are ATR72-500 to service domestic and regional routes. Air Mauritius now has one of the youngest widebody fleets in the world.