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.

NEW DELHI: Air India is going to increase the frequency of its nonstops to the US and Australia, apart from linking Los Angeles directly to Delhi by this summer. It also plans to tackle the frequent failure of the back-of-seat in-flight entertainment systems in premium classes of longhauls by giving personal electronic devices, like tablets, with content for the duration of the flight.

Throwing a spanner in the government’s plans to privatise Air India, parliamentary panel on transport, tourism and culture has recommended that the national carrier should be given at least five years to revive and write-off its debt. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture concluded that the government should review its decision to privatise or disinvest Air India and explore the possibility of “an alternative to disinvestment of our national carrier which is our national pride”, reported PTI.

Air India's operational profit rose to Rs 215 crore and net losses narrowed to Rs 3,643 crore in 2016-17, according to the government.

To revive the loss-making national carrier, the government is working on the modalities for its strategic disinvestment while Ernst & Young LLP has been appointed as the transaction advisor.

Divestment-bound national carrier Air India has sent a batch of 17 senior A320 pilots — who are trained for critical low-visibility operations — for Boeing command course in the midst of the foggy season, a move that has raised questions. The decision has led to a severe shortage of senior pilots who are trained for low-visibility operations and they are required to be deployed on the northern routes during the winter season. According to an airline source privy to the development, the move raises questions as these pilots are critical to winter operations in the North.

The government on Monday sought Parliament’s nod for gross additional spending of Rs 66,113 crore in 2017-18 including Rs 10 lakh for setting up a special purpose vehicle, as part of the Air India disinvestment plan. Given the savings by ministries and enhanced receipts, the Centre’s net cash outgo would be only Rs 33,380 crore. However, the additional expenditure might not necessarily lead to extra borrowings by the Centre this fiscal year as it is likely to reallocate resources from under-spending departments to performing ones in the revised estimate to be presented along with Budget for 2018-19.

A Vijaywada-bound Air India flight carrying 100 passengers and civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju was delayed by over an hour on Wednesday at Delhi airport. The airline later suspended three AI employees and issued a warning letter to the pilot for arriving late.

“Yesterday Air India AI 459 Delhi to Vijaywada flight was delayed by around 1.30 hours with over 100 passengers including minister of civil aviation P Ashok Gajapati Raju onboard,” Air India spokesperson GP Rao told ANI.

To fast-track the privatisation of state-run Air India (AI), the government is likely to first divide the enterprise into two: AI and Air India Express (AIE), which undertakes the airline’s profitable West Asia operations, would be combined and put up for sale; another special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will include AI’s Rs 32,000-crore working capital debt, its other subsidiaries including Alliance Air and assets such as land and buildings, will be monetised later.

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