India’s high-profile offer to sell a stake in Air India failed to attract a single bidder by the Thursday deadline, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target for offloading stakes in government-held firms. The no-show by buyers in a booming aviation market underlines the challenges the government faces in fixing the debt-laden national carrier, and was a setback for Modi’s credentials as a reformer willing to step away from running money-losing businesses.

With just a day left for submitting the expressions of interest (EoI) for Air India, civil aviation secretary RN Choubey on Wednesday said that so far they have not received even a single bid. After having extended the last day for submitting the EoIs from May 14 to May 31, the secretary also said that any further extension would not be given. However, Choubey still exuded confidence, adding that he expects bids to come at the last hour.

World’s cheapest airlines: Even as the low-cost carriers IndiGo and Air India Express make it to the the top five cheapest airlines in the world in providing international connectivity, other Indian carriers Spicejet, Vistara, Go Air etc too find a mention in the domestic list. Most notably, Air India Express, the wholly-owned subsidiary of state-run carrier Air India has been ranked second and the budget carrier IndiGo placed at fifth position in a Global Flight Pricing Report prepared by Melbourne-based Rome2rio — a multimodal travel planning site.

The government is in dilemma over Air India privatisation and is rightly re-tweaking the details after couple of bidders pulled out. However, at the same time the government is being prudent as aviation secretary R N Choubey now says that the national carrier may not be sold if they do not get the right price.

Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey on Tueday said the government could decide against selling state-run Air India if it does not get "adequate" price for it.

"The government has the right to sale or not to sale Air India if the bid price is found to be inadequate," Choubey told reporters here, even as he expressed confidence that ailing airline will fetch a good price.

An Air India plane from Goa with 143 passengers onboard made an emergency landing here after a hydraulic failure, a spokesperson fro the airline said.

A full emergency was declared at the airport at 8.36 PM as flight AI 662 made the emergency landing. "It landed safely with 143 passengers onboard," the spokesperson said.

State-run carrier Air India may have to pay a penalty of $8.8 million to 323 passengers of its May 9 Delhi-Chicago flight, which was delayed as a fallout of withdrawal of relaxations given on flight duty time limitation (FDTL) of the crew.

Disinvestment-bound flag carrier Air India will phase out its remaining three Classic A320 planes, which are nearly three decade old, from the fleet by the end of this year. The airline had in April 2014 announced its plans to retire all 14 single-isle double-bogey wheel planes from its fleet in a phased manner after it decided to induct more fuel-efficient Airbus A320 neo planes into operations.

Air India has recorded a 20 per cent growth in revenue in March-April 2018. The carrier has also embarked on a route-analysis exercise, focusing on increasing flying hours of its aircraft, to add more trips, Chairman and Managing Director, Pradeep Singh Kharola, said.

The airline is focussing on improving the operational efficiency, both in the domestic and international sectors, even as it is buoyed over the load factor, on time performance and revenue growth, Kharola said.

Mumbai: The government on Thursday said that there is a great deal of interest for disinvestment of Air India Ltd, amid the deadline for submission of preliminary bids ending this month.

The last date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) for the proposed 76% stake sale in debt-laden Air India is 31 May. Earlier this month, the government came out with clarifications related to the disinvestment.

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