With many airlines reportedly queuing up to pick up a stake in Air India, the civil aviation minister Gajapathi Raju said that any unsolicited expression of interest in the state-run carrier is not relevant at this stage. Gajapathi Raju made the statement in the Rajya Sabha while in response to a question. “The draft EOI document inviting proposals for disinvestment of airline is yet to be issued. Formal proposals from prospective bidders would be received thereafter only. Any unsolicited EOI at this stage is not relevant,” Raju said.

Air India will get a one-time grant of 750,000 euros from Israel for launching direct flights between New Delhi and Tel Aviv, which is likely to be launched next month, a senior Israeli official said today. “The Ministry of Tourism will approve a grant to Air India in response to their request and according to the conditions of the directive, which includes a grant of 250,000 Euro per weekly flight, up to a total of three weekly flights,” Lydia Weitzman, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Tourism, told PTI here.

The government is expecting to have the winning bidder for national carrier Air India by the end of June and the "legal closing" of the transaction by year-end, Union Minister Jayant Sinha said on Friday.

To revive the fortune of the debt-laden carrier, the government has decided on a strategic disinvestment and a group of ministers is working on the modalities.

NEW DELHI: Air India, India's flagship carrier, may get a sepcial mention in Union Budget 2018.

The Economic Survey released two days ago suggested that the government would do well to complete Air India's disinvestment in the next financial year.

New Delhi: More domestic airlines could show interest in Air India, the soon to be privatized state-run airline, aviation consulting firm Capa said in its outlook for 2018-19.

“Up to four Indian carriers could express interest—Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara,” Capa said in a report released in Mumbai on Tuesday.

National carrier Air India has always been the worst in punctuality, but now that ignominy has passed to Jet Airways in India. It got the tag of the worst on-time performance in eight out of 12 months in 2017, with as many as a third of its departures delayed.

Jet Airways and Jet Lite carried 20.7 million domestic passengers in 2017. For the businessmen, industrialists, corporates and other frequent flyers among this lot, Jet's poor punctuality record has turned flying into a pain.

With the government taking quick steps for divesting its stake in Air India, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey says that a foreign player has expressed interest in acquiring 49% stake in the state-run carrier. According to a report in the Times of India, Aviation secretary R N Choubey said that the foreign player has shown an “unsolicited expression of interest for AI’s airline arm.”

Around 160 passengers, including Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren, had a close shave when their Air India flight suffered a bird hit while landing at the airport in Guwahati.

The Delhi-Guwahati-Imphal flight was grounded on Friday and passengers travelling to Imphal were left stranded.

India will break up its debt-burdened flag carrier into four separate companies and offer to sell at least 51 per cent in each of them as part of a disinvestment proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The core airline business comprising Air India and Air India Express — the low-cost overseas arm — will be offered as one company, and the process will be completed by the end of 2018, Junior Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha said in an interview Monday.

GoI's decision to allow 49% foreign airline equity in Air India is good news. The rules were changed last year permitting 100% foreign equity in Indian carriers, restricting foreign airlines holding to 49% — excluding Air India. The move will attract better valuation for the national carrier.

The news that the Tatas have shown interest to bid for Air India, along with Singapore Airlines, after the Union Cabinet amended the rules has spread cheer.

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