A cabin crew member of national carrier Air India has been arrested at international airport here for allegedly trying to smuggle about 300 bottles of a banned drug to the US.

The crew member, who was intending to depart to New York, was intercepted by the customs officials on Friday. On his personal and baggage search, 300 bottles of 'Phensedyl new cough Linctus 50 ml' were allegedly recovered.

Air India Express (AIE), the no-frills brand of Air India, is exploring a foray into the domestic market.

AIE presently serves migrant labour and business traffic between India and West Asia. Its main bases are in Kerala and it is preparing for expansion. That could include flights on domestic routes. While the immediate focus is on growing its business in established markets, it is hiring a consultant to prepare a network plan and evaluate all potential routes, domestic and international, which could be served profitably.

NEW DELHI: Saddled with a debt of almost Rs 50,000 crore, Air India is trying to restructure the Rs 28,000 crore working capital portion of this burden. The airline's top brass had an informal meeting with State Bank of India management last week in Mumbai where the Maharaja requested that SBI Caps be asked to examine the possibility of converting a part of the working capital debt into equity.

Air India is seeing a gain in rail minister Suresh Prabhu's surge-pricing pain. The national carrier on Saturday brought out full page ads, selling unsold seats on its metro flights at Rajdhani II fares four hours before departure time.

The ad, featuring the legendary Maharaja, claimed cheaper Air India spot fares than Rajdhani flexi fares, taking potshot at Prabhu's pricing move panned by train travellers.

NEW DELHI: Air India is likely to enjoy acche din, as its low-cost international subsidiary Air India Express has turned the corner by reporting net profits for the first time since it started operations in April 2005.

The airline reported a profit of Rs 362 crore during the 2015-16 fiscal, helped by lower fuel prices and improved revenues over the past year on the back of flying more people per flight. The airline had incurred losses of Rs 62 crore during the 2014-15 fiscal.

Boeing's fuel-efficient 787 aircraft has helped government-owned Air India (AI) achieve operating profit, said Dinesh Keskar, the plane maker's senior vice-president (sales) for the Asia-Pacific.

“The 787 aircraft is a key part of AI's turnaround strategy. It has been able to lower its loss and enhance profitability, owing to fuel savings and reduced maintenance cost offered by the aircraft,” Keskar said on the sidelines of an Indo-American Chamber of Commerce event.

Air India’s plans of converting Rs 10,000 crore debts into equity will give a much needed push its ambitious turnaround plan of becoming profitable by FY2018.

On Monday, The Economic Times reported that the state-run carrier is looking to convert its debt into equity through the Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets or S4A scheme.

Sakshi Malik has become the country's new hero. After the Haryana wrestler clinched bronze in the Repechage round, no opportunity is being spared to give the country's first medalist at Rio Olympics a champion's welcome.

Apart from being promised cash prizes from the Haryana government and Railways ministry, the Indian National carrier, Air India, on Friday offered two complimentary business class tickets to Sakshi and her companion.

The government has assured Air India of financial and other assistance urging the carrier to meet the targets spelt out in the new turnaround plan. The state-owned airline must improve on time performance (OTP), passenger load factor (PLF), capacity growth and monetise assets.

Air India chairman and managing director Aswani Lohani is understood to have asked the government to waive the guarantee fee charged to secure the airline’s loans and bonds.

Air India has finally succeeded in roping-in a private airline to use the maintenance repair overhaul (MRO) facility at the SEZ in Mihan in Nagpur.

An MoU was signed by Air India Engineering Services CEO H R Jagannath and Spicejet vice president Arun Kashyap in the presence of top AI officials here yesterday.

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