In 2009, the Centre had mandated that Central government officers travel via Air India for all official purposes including availing of LTC….reports Asian Lite News
The Centre on Wednesday directed all Union Ministries and Departments to clear Air India’s dues immediately.
An office memorandum from the Finance Ministry’s Department of Expenditure said: “Recently, the Government of India has decided to disinvest Air India, and the process of disinvestment of Air India and Air India Express is ongoing.”
“Air India has stopped extending credit facilities on account of purchase of air tickets. Therefore, all Ministries or Departments are directed to clear Air India’s dues immediately.”
“Air tickets from Air India, may be purchased in cash till further instructions.”
In 2009, the Centre had mandated that Central government officers travel via Air India for all official purposes including availing of LTC.
On Monday, conglomerate Tata Group entered into a share purchase agreement with the Central government for buying out the latter’s stake in national carrier Air India, Air India Express, and AISATS.
Earlier, a Letter of Intent was issued to the Tata Group.
After the SPA, Tata Group would need to fulfil the conditions precedent in the agreement before taking over the airline. The rest of the transaction is expected to be completed by December.
Tata Sons’ subsidiary Talace emerged as th e highest bidder for the national carrier under the divestment process.
Talace had quoted an enterprise value of Rs 18,000 crore for 100 per cent equity shareholding of the Centre in Air India along with that of Air India Express and AISATS.
The low-cost carrier’s massive fleet size, as well as expansive routes, are expected to protect its huge domestic market share….reports Asian Lite News
Industry leader IndiGo is expected to maintain its dominant position in Indian skies, despite the massive build-up of Tata Sons’ aviation assets.
The low-cost carrier’s massive fleet size, as well as expansive routes, are expected to protect its huge domestic market share.
With a 58 per cent domestic market share, the airline ferries around 6 out of every 10 domestic passengers.
It has a fleet size of 275 aircraft and operates over 1,200 daily flights
In the pre-pandemic era, the airline connected over 70 domestic and 24 international destinations.
Pic credits IANS
Compare this with a likely strength of over 200 aircraft that Air India-Tata combine might posses.
Besides, IndiGo can quickly add more aircraft as it can expedite induction by around 5 planes per month.
However, its fleet has only narrow body aircraft that restrict operational reach.
On the other hand, a combine of Air India-Tata will have Air India’s 117 wide-body and narrow body aircraft and Air India Express’s 24.
The wide-body aircraft, trained crews, invaluable airport slots, and time-tested operational standards, gives the edge to the combine in terms of ferrying international passenger traffic.
It will also operate these aircraft on over 4,000 domestic and 1,800 international routes.
“Clearly, IndiGo has built a dominant position in the domestic airline market over the last few years and in the pre-pandemic period, it was the only airline in India which demonstrated the ability to generate a healthy level of profits,” Acuite Ratings and Research Ltd Chief Analytical Officer Suman Chowdhury said.
“While the Tata Group will have the advantage of a better diversity in its aircraft fleet, it will be important for them to streamline the consolidated operations and derive the necessary synergies to be cost competitive.
“As the operational restrictions ease in the post-pandemic period, passenger traffic is set to scale up rapidly but with record high fuel costs, the ability to keep costs under control will be the key differentiator for the airlines industry,” he added.
Brickwork Ratings’ Senior Director, Ratings and Head, Infrastructure Ratings Vipula Sharma said: “Post pandemic, the airline recovery has been erratic. Indigo, with its relatively stronger finances will retain its market share in the medium term while the other players rebuild their operations.”
“The clear structure of this market will emerge only after the economic activity along with regular business travel reach pre-pandemic levels and the Tatas firm up their strategy with the three airlines.”
In a recent conversation with IANS, IndiGo Wholetime Director and CEO Ronojoy Dutta acknowledged that the competitive landscape is going to get much more intense.
“There are three potential new entrants. Most formidable force of course will be the Air India, Vistara and AirAsia (India) Alliance. They’ll emerge as a strong player. No question about that.”
On its part, IndiGo has three distinct lines of defence to ward-off competition, said Dutta.
“Our first line of defence is that we have the lowest cost structure in the world. Besides, our engines are getting more fuel-efficient. Then, there is our service standard and the third is our traction with the customers in terms of our network.”
“Build a great network, build great connectivity and make sure you have high (on-time) frequencies between major destinations.”
Furthermore, Dutta said that apart from connecting smaller towns, the airline is entering in code-share agreements to shore up its international network.
“Internationally, codeshares are important. We have a codeshare with Qatar Airways. We have a codeshare with Turkish and we are looking to add more.”
Recently, the airline entered into a codeshare agreement with American Airlines.
'Welcome back, Air India', says Ratan Tata. Pic credits IANS
Under the deal now, Tata Sons will acquire Air India, 50 per cent of Air India-Sats, and Air India Express…reports Asian Lite News
Life has come full circle for the Tata Group which has emerged as the winning bidder to takeover Air India, an airline that they once started and nurtured before the government decided to nationalise the air carrier in 1953.
In a throwback of the journey the airline has taken so far, Ratan Tata, the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, on Friday tweeted an old photograph of the company’s former Chairman J.R.D. Tata getting down from an Air India aircraft, minutes after Tata Sons won the bid to regain control of the airline.
“Welcome back, Air India!”, Ratan Tata tweeted.
“The Tata Group winning the bid for Air India is great news! While admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India, it will hopefully provide a very strong market opportunity to the Tata Group’s presence in the aviation industry,” he said.
“On an emotional note, Air India, under the leadership of Mr JRD Tata, had, at one time, gained the reputation of being one of the most prestigious airlines in the world. Tatas will have the opportunity of regaining the image and reputation it enjoyed in earlier years. Mr JRD Tata would have been overjoyed if he was in our midst today,” Ratan Tata tweeted.
“We also need to recognise and thank the government for its recent policy of opening select industries to the private sector. Welcome back, Air India!,” he said.
It was in 1932 that Tatas’ journey into the aviation sector in India began, which in 1946 led to the renaming of the Tata Airline to Air India after the entity turned public. The airline went out from its hands in 1953 when the government decided to nationalise it.
Under the deal now, Tata Sons will acquire Air India, 50 per cent of Air India-Sats, and Air India Express. The government will get Rs 2,700 crore in cash from the sale. The rest is the government’s debt, which Air India will take over.
“I remember when I had to complete my assignments I used to study even under the street lights when there were power cuts. I then topped in my college and then my parents also felt that I needed to get enrolled for the pilot course to achieve my goals…Zoya interacts with Anand Singh.
Captain Zoya Aggarwal is an admiring name for all young girls in the country since she had her first successful fly from North Pole with whole women team with her in the beginning of 2021, through which she crossed another milestone by commanding an all-women team to pilot Air India’s longest non-stop commercial flight from US’s San Francisco to India’s Bengaluru, says that the main motto of her life is to make an “impact” on the lives of lakhs of youths to dream big.
The United Nations has chosen Aggarwal as its Spokesperson for Generation Equality. On International Youth Day, the UN also featured India and Air India to spread awareness amongst the youth. This is a big moment for India as the UN has featured for the first time a pilot from Air India on its global platform. This is the first time ever that UN women has kicked off world youth day with India.
In an interview on the International Youth Day, Aggarwal, who has been featured by the UN said, “I was just eight years old when I saw an aeroplane flying while sitting on the terrace of my house. And there and then I decided to fly a plane and to touch the stars.”
She said that as a kid, she started preparing to fulfil her dreams. Agarwal said that she had to face a lot of resistance as she came from a very humble and conservative family. “But for me it was possible,” she said, adding, “I believed in myself and went for my goal and told my parents, eventually to become a pilot.”
She said that as she was the only child of her parents, her mother was in tears while her father was nervous, and then he asked her to get admission in college thinking that she will forget about her dream to be a pilot. She said that she went to St Stephen’s in Delhi and then completed her Science degree and side by side also got herself enrolled for the aviation classes in the remaining days time.
“And I needed a prove that I can achieve my goal and of course I needed the support of my parents, without whom I couldn’t have done that. I also had a piggy bank in which I have been saving for last 17 years which I contributed for enrolling into the aviation classes,” she said.
“I remember when I had to complete my assignments I used to study even under the street lights when there were power cuts. I then topped in my college and then my parents also felt that I needed to get enrolled for the pilot course to achieve my goals.
“I was fortunate that my parents agreed and then took a loan. And I was the fifth girl to fly in Air India in 2004. At that point of time to get into Air India was very tough. For seven vacancies there were over 3,000 applicants with more experience than me. But despite the things that were against me I was lucky to get in,” she said.
“My father also had a heart attack, just three days before my exam of Air India. He was in tears in the ICU before I was going for the exam and he was upset because I was going without him. He was nervous that how tough it was for children to compete at such an early age,” she recalled.
She said that her first flight was from Delhi to Dubai. Agarwal in 2013 was the youngest woman to fly the Boeing 777 in the world. “In 2021 I became the first ever woman captain to fly over the north pole with an all women crew, creating world history. That flight created a number of records and also put India on the world map,” she said.
Agarwal was among the first few pilots and cabin crews to volunteer for the Vande Bharat Mission to evacuate Indian nationals from all across the world in view of the Covid pandemic. “After the Covid pandemic became serious in the US, I volunteered, it was a call of duty. Our first Vande Bharat flight from the US’s San Francisco to India’s Mumbai with all Indian consulate staff was on Mother’s Day. I was away from my mother but I was fortunate to reunite hundreds of families with their mothers,” she said.
“And when our flight landed in Mumbai the passengers cheered for me and even the people at the airport wearing their face shields were applauding for us with tears in their eyes,” she recalled. “It was an opportunity to rise to the occasion and that was the inspiration as these memories will go to our graves with us,” Agarwal said.
And the message through my entire journey is that if a girl from a humble background can do this, it will inspire lakhs of youths whether men or women to dream big in their lives, she said. She added that she keeps on getting letters and DMs on Instagram where the people say that they had lost hope but after coming to know of my story they want to do something. “There must be a reason why people are following me. There must a reason that God has given me an opportunity to serve mankind. And then I got to the United Nations, which is like my another dream coming true, as I always wanted to work for it as it gives a wide platform to inspire people.
“My goal in life is to make an impact on the lives of the people and the UN is the best place where I can do that meaningfully,” she added.
