A mid-air disaster was averted in the Mumbai airspace when a Vistara aircraft came perilously close to an Air India plane, prompting the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) to launch a probe.

On February 7, the Vistara's UK 997 Pune-bound aircraft from Delhi, carrying 152 passengers, was just 100 feet away from the Air India's AI 631 flight for Bhopal which had 109 passengers on board.

Contrary to popular belief that Air India made a turnaround under the current National Democratic Alliance government, figures show that its loss widened instead. According to figures provided in Parliament by minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha, the state-owned carrier registered a loss of Rs 57.65 billion in FY17, Rs 19.29 billion higher than Rs 38.36 billion loss in FY16.

The figures reflect significant deviation from the minister’s own parliamentary disclosure on July 27, 2017.

Saudi Arabia has allowed Air India to use its airspace for flights between Delhi and Tel Aviv, Israeli daily Haaretz reported. However, a spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation was quoted in another media report denying that any such permission was granted to Air India.

It could not be confirmed from either the ministry of civil aviation here or Air India, whether the national carrier has been given right to use Saudi airspace for flight to Tel Aviv.

With many airlines reportedly queuing up to pick up a stake in Air India, the civil aviation minister Gajapathi Raju said that any unsolicited expression of interest in the state-run carrier is not relevant at this stage. Gajapathi Raju made the statement in the Rajya Sabha while in response to a question. “The draft EOI document inviting proposals for disinvestment of airline is yet to be issued. Formal proposals from prospective bidders would be received thereafter only. Any unsolicited EOI at this stage is not relevant,” Raju said.

Air India will get a one-time grant of 750,000 euros from Israel for launching direct flights between New Delhi and Tel Aviv, which is likely to be launched next month, a senior Israeli official said today. “The Ministry of Tourism will approve a grant to Air India in response to their request and according to the conditions of the directive, which includes a grant of 250,000 Euro per weekly flight, up to a total of three weekly flights,” Lydia Weitzman, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Tourism, told PTI here.

The government is expecting to have the winning bidder for national carrier Air India by the end of June and the "legal closing" of the transaction by year-end, Union Minister Jayant Sinha said on Friday.

To revive the fortune of the debt-laden carrier, the government has decided on a strategic disinvestment and a group of ministers is working on the modalities.

NEW DELHI: Air India, India's flagship carrier, may get a sepcial mention in Union Budget 2018.

The Economic Survey released two days ago suggested that the government would do well to complete Air India's disinvestment in the next financial year.

New Delhi: More domestic airlines could show interest in Air India, the soon to be privatized state-run airline, aviation consulting firm Capa said in its outlook for 2018-19.

“Up to four Indian carriers could express interest—Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara,” Capa said in a report released in Mumbai on Tuesday.

National carrier Air India has always been the worst in punctuality, but now that ignominy has passed to Jet Airways in India. It got the tag of the worst on-time performance in eight out of 12 months in 2017, with as many as a third of its departures delayed.

Jet Airways and Jet Lite carried 20.7 million domestic passengers in 2017. For the businessmen, industrialists, corporates and other frequent flyers among this lot, Jet's poor punctuality record has turned flying into a pain.

With the government taking quick steps for divesting its stake in Air India, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey says that a foreign player has expressed interest in acquiring 49% stake in the state-run carrier. According to a report in the Times of India, Aviation secretary R N Choubey said that the foreign player has shown an “unsolicited expression of interest for AI’s airline arm.”

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