IndiGo, India’s largest airline, has pulled out of the race for Air India, dealing a blow to the government’s disinvestment plans. IndiGo was the only airline that had officially expressed an interest to buy the state-owned carrier.

IndiGo said it was pulling out as it was not interested in taking over Air India’s domestic operations. Last year, IndiGo had made it clear it was primarily interested in Air India’s international business and its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express, which operates in West Asia.

NEW DELHI: Air India's New Delhi-bound flight from Chicago has been grounded at the the Chicago airport due to a technical glitch.

The aircraft, a Boeing 777-300, operating AI 126 ( Chicago-New Delhi), which was scheduled to take off at 1.30pm (local time), is currently on ground due to a crack on the edge flap on one of the wings, an Air India source said.

Disinvestment-bound Air India has delayed the payment of salaries for the month of March and is yet to intimate the employees about reasons for the delay, sources said. The debt-laden carrier has over 21,000 employees, including more than 11,000 on permanent rolls. Generally, salaries are paid by the 30th or 31st of every month and in case of bank holidays around these dates, then payments are made in advance.

The Air India sale has been code-named Project Royal, although the plain truth is that the national airline isn’t the king of Indian aviation. The company has run losses for years and is laden with debt. Even so, like its affable mascot Maharajah, there are things Air India brings to the table that will attract some buying interest.

The government will divest 76 per cent stake in Air India, according to the information memorandum on the airline’s proposed stake sale released on Wednesday. The sale will include Air India's shareholding in low-cost Air India Express and its joint venture ground handling subsidiary AISATS.

Bidders must have a minimum net worth of Rs 50 billion and net profit for three preceding years. However, the rule has been relaxed for Indian carriers to enable them to participate in the bid process.

Israel s national airline El Al today filed an urgent petition to the High Court against Air India’s new route connecting New Delhi and Tel Aviv via Saudi airspace, days after the Indian carrier launched its maiden service to the Jewish state, Israeli media reports said. Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv, El Al’s CEO Gonen Usishkin and chairman Eli Defes said that by allowing Air India to fly over a country (Saudi Arabia) that does not grant El Al the same rights, the government is violating its commitments to Israel’s national carrier, the Times of Israel reported.

Saudi Arabia opened its airspace for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel with the inauguration on Thursday of an Air India route between New Delhi and Tel Aviv.

Air India 139 landed at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport after a flight of over 7-1/2 hours, marking a diplomatic shift for Riyadh that Israel says was fuelled by shared concern over Iranian influence in the region.

Amidst the privatisation talks, it has been reported that the national carrier Air India might gove promotion to its 100 pilots with a pay hike of Rs 12 lakh per head.

"The 100 deputy general manager rank pilots are narrow-body and widebody pilots. These pilots are likely to be promoted to executive despite the fact that the airline is being privatised," a source told the Economic Times.

The government is likely to relax the eligibility criteria for Air India disinvestment by allowing airlines with negative net worth to bid. However, non-airline companies may be told to satisfy minimum net worth conditions to prove their financial strength.

The evaluation committee of Air India, after discussions with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, had suggested that all bidders be mandated to fulfil a minimum net worth criterion, a source said.

NEW DELHI: Air India’s Twitter account @airindiain was hacked on Thursday with a Turkish group claiming responsibility for the act.

The account was restored by noon. “Your account has been hacked by the Turkish cyber army Ayyildiz Tim. Your DM correspondence and important data have been captured," read another tweet on the compromised account.

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