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.”

Around 160 passengers, including Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren, had a close shave when their Air India flight suffered a bird hit while landing at the airport in Guwahati.

The Delhi-Guwahati-Imphal flight was grounded on Friday and passengers travelling to Imphal were left stranded.

India will break up its debt-burdened flag carrier into four separate companies and offer to sell at least 51 per cent in each of them as part of a disinvestment proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The core airline business comprising Air India and Air India Express — the low-cost overseas arm — will be offered as one company, and the process will be completed by the end of 2018, Junior Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha said in an interview Monday.

GoI's decision to allow 49% foreign airline equity in Air India is good news. The rules were changed last year permitting 100% foreign equity in Indian carriers, restricting foreign airlines holding to 49% — excluding Air India. The move will attract better valuation for the national carrier.

The news that the Tatas have shown interest to bid for Air India, along with Singapore Airlines, after the Union Cabinet amended the rules has spread cheer.

The government on Wednesday allowed foreign entities to own up to a 49 per cent stake in Air India to increase the prospect of successful disinvestment in the carrier.

In a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government clarified that substantial ownership and effective control of Air India would continue to be vested in Indian nationals.

In a bid to woo business class passengers on its international flights Air India is considering providing laptops to its premium travellers, its Chairman and Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said on Monday.

The move is geared towards improving the airline's passenger load factor or seat occupancy in business class which often sees almost half the seats going empty.

NEW DELHI: The government will push ahead with the stake sale in Air India and hopes to wrap up the transaction by June, according to government sources.

The Union Cabinet gave an in-principle approval for Air India's strategic disinvestment in June last year and a panel of ministers headed by FM Arun Jaitley is now devising the strategy for executing the sale.

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