Category Archives: Aviation

As AirAsia’s rapid transformation from an airline into a digital travel and lifestyle services group continues to gain strong momentum, the holding company for the airline group has been officially renamed AirAsia Aviation Limited. Bo Lingam, formerly President for AirAsia Group, takes over as Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Limited, overseeing the four airlines in the Group (AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Philippines,  AirAsia Thailand and AirAsia Indonesia). Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Limited Bo Lingam said: “This structural change helps facilitate strong projected growth in both airline and non-airline portfolio businesses.

Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, virtually flagged off 6 routes expanding the aerial connectivity of North-East India. The routes commencing operations from today are Kolkata – Guwahati, Guwahati – Aizawl, Aizawl – Shillong, Shillong – Aizawl, Aizawl – Guwahati, and Guwahati – Kolkata. “Mizoram is the gateway to North-East India. The city has an immense amount of importance for its tourism & economic sector. We are committed to giving wings to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of making it possible that every state’s uniqueness must be experienced by all citizens of the country”, said Scindia.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, has flagged the inaugural SpiceJet Delhi-Tirupati flight and hence boosting the connectivity between the National capital and spiritual capital of India. Also present at the virtual inauguration were General VK Singh, MoS, Civil Aviation; Prahlad Singh Patel, MoS, Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti; Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet; an Usha Padhee, JS, MoCA.

Italy has launched a new national airline, Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA), in place of Alitalia, which closed down after reporting huge losses recently. ITA flew its inaugural flight on 14th October and unveiled its brand and logo, which showcase the red, white and green of its predecessor Alitalia. However, it will be a low-cost airline. ITA won Alitalia’s iconic brand for 90 million euros, nearly one third of what Alitalia was hoping for, the carrier said late on Friday.

SpiceJet has partnered with Thrillophilia, allowing customers to book tours, activities and experiences even before the start of the trip. The strategic partnership will enable SpiceJet passengers to choose and book from more than 24,000 handpicked activities and experiences across 55+ countries. Travelling on budget or luxuriously, whether it’s a family trip, a romantic honeymoon or simply an adventure tour, the platform will offer carefully designed packages to ensure one enjoys a great travel experience every single time. Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Commercial Officer, SpiceJet said, “Planning a vacation should be seamless and enjoyable which is what we aim to offer with this partnership with Thrillophilia. Customer centricity is at the heart of everything we do at SpiceJet and this is yet another step in that direction whereby customers can avail the best of both domestic and international travel experiences on a platter.”

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.