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.

The government on Wednesday allowed foreign entities to own up to a 49 per cent stake in Air India to increase the prospect of successful disinvestment in the carrier.

In a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government clarified that substantial ownership and effective control of Air India would continue to be vested in Indian nationals.

In a bid to woo business class passengers on its international flights Air India is considering providing laptops to its premium travellers, its Chairman and Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said on Monday.

The move is geared towards improving the airline's passenger load factor or seat occupancy in business class which often sees almost half the seats going empty.

NEW DELHI: The government will push ahead with the stake sale in Air India and hopes to wrap up the transaction by June, according to government sources.

The Union Cabinet gave an in-principle approval for Air India's strategic disinvestment in June last year and a panel of ministers headed by FM Arun Jaitley is now devising the strategy for executing the sale.

NEW DELHI: Air India is going to increase the frequency of its nonstops to the US and Australia, apart from linking Los Angeles directly to Delhi by this summer. It also plans to tackle the frequent failure of the back-of-seat in-flight entertainment systems in premium classes of longhauls by giving personal electronic devices, like tablets, with content for the duration of the flight.

Throwing a spanner in the government’s plans to privatise Air India, parliamentary panel on transport, tourism and culture has recommended that the national carrier should be given at least five years to revive and write-off its debt. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture concluded that the government should review its decision to privatise or disinvest Air India and explore the possibility of “an alternative to disinvestment of our national carrier which is our national pride”, reported PTI.

Air India's operational profit rose to Rs 215 crore and net losses narrowed to Rs 3,643 crore in 2016-17, according to the government.

To revive the loss-making national carrier, the government is working on the modalities for its strategic disinvestment while Ernst & Young LLP has been appointed as the transaction advisor.

Divestment-bound national carrier Air India has sent a batch of 17 senior A320 pilots — who are trained for critical low-visibility operations — for Boeing command course in the midst of the foggy season, a move that has raised questions. The decision has led to a severe shortage of senior pilots who are trained for low-visibility operations and they are required to be deployed on the northern routes during the winter season. According to an airline source privy to the development, the move raises questions as these pilots are critical to winter operations in the North.

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