Air India has approached the government asking it to guarantee non-convertible debentures (NCD) worth `10,500 crore that it wants to issue against long-terms debt on its books. Converting loans into NCDs would bring down the interest rate by about 2%, senior executives at the airline explained. The country’s national carrier also plans to use the proceeds from a sale and lease back of wide-bodied aircraft to retire Rs ,500 crore or about a fifth of its short-term debt.

Aiming to attract more fliers and achieve higher seat occupancy in its flights on trunk routes, Air India has decided to lower its last minute ticket fares to the level of 2-tier AC of Rajdhani trains.

As part of the pricing strategy, Air India will drop fares on four key routes--Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai, Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Bengaluru--four hours before the departure of flights to these destinations.

With an aim to connect more global destinations, leading state-run airline Air India will launch Ahmedabad-London-Newark flight from August 15 and Delhi-Madrid in December, and also plans to expand its fleet size in next four years, a top official said today.

“We will be launching the Ahmedabad-London-Newark flight from August 15 and Delhi-Madrid from December as part of our growth plan,” Air India Chairman and Managing Director, Ashwini Lohani, told reporters here.

NEW DELHI: The Maharaja does not want its crew to get naughty on duty. Air India's crew management system (CMS), which pairs pilots and cabin crew for flights and prepares rosters, routinely gets requests from crew to be paired with specific members of their choice.

Keen to avoid a scandal since some married crew members also make requests, the airline has now banned CMS from accepting such requests and warned of action against crew members who do so.

New Delhi: Air India Ltd’s chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani has hit out at the previous government, saying it left the state-owned airline in a mess led by a botched merger and billions of dollars in aircraft debt.

Air India, the international arm, and Indian Airlines which flew mostly domestic routes were merged by the United Progressive Alliance government in 2007 under a single banner, Air India Ltd.

Air India made Rs 1 crore profit a day under Y C Deveshwar's chairpersonship in fiscal 1993. Deveshwar, who is stepping down as executive chairperson of ITC from next February, held the post of Air India chairperson during 1991-94. He was appointed by then civil aviation minister Madhavrao Scindia and succeeded Subhash Gupte who held officiating charge at that time.

Deveshwar's tenure in Air India was marked by improved profits and good management practices. He framed policies on succession planning and tried to bring focus on increasing corporate sales, say retired airline executives.

Air India’s “books are so bad” that nobody will buy it, even if the government wanted to sell off the national carrier, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said on Thursday.

Ruling out disinvestment in the carrier that has a debt of Rs 50,000 crore, Raju at the same time said the taxpayers’ money could not be committed “for eternity”.

National carrier Air India has barred pilots and cabin crew from operating flights where their immediate family members are also on duty.

There have been occasions when flight duties were performed by immediate family members on the same flight.

NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of the budget carriers rolling out low fares, Government-run Air India has also launched a limited period super sale scheme, offering customers all-inclusive ticket prices starting as low as Rs 1,499 on its domestic network.

The tickets under the 'super sale offer' can be booked between today and May 25 for a travel period between July and September 30, Air India said.

NEW DELHI: Switching into expansion mode, the Air India Group has decided to add 100 planes to its current fleet of 132 in the next four years. All airlines within the group — parent AI, AI Express and Alliance Air — will get more aircraft under the plan. This time the airline will opt for leasing, unlike the 111-aircraft order of UPA-I when planes were bought.

"By March 31, 2020, AI group will have 232 planes. While nine aircraft (six Boeing 787s and three B-777) are from the previous order (of 111 planes), the rest will be new orders for leasing planes. We are going to grow aggressively and fight for leadership across segments," AI chairman Ashwani Lohani told TOI.

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