Air India

In a communication to the airlines employees, a senior company official wrote: "The disinvestment of Air India is now decided to be on January 27, 2022. "The closing balance sheet as on January 20 has to be provided today, i.e., January 24, so that it can be reviewed by Tatas and any changes can be effected on Wednesday." The communication, which was reviewed by IANS, was sent to the employees by Director of Finance, Vinod Hejmadi.

On Tuesday, the national carrier said that it will not be able to operate a number of US-bound flights due to the deployment of 5G communications in the US. As per industry insiders, the 5G network technology might cause certain crucial flight instruments to malfunction. The airline informed passengers via its official Twitter handle: "#FlyAI : Flight operations to/from destinations in USA were affected during last two days."

Accordingly, the airline informed passengers via it's official Twitter handle that it will not be able to operate the Delhi-JFK-Delhi and Mumbai-EWR-Mumbai flights amongst other on Wednesday.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved Dutt's appointment as the CMD of Air India in the rank and pay of an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation. At present, Dutt, a 1993 batch IAS officer, is based in his UT cadre. He succeeds Rajiv Bansal, who is currently the Union Civil Aviation Secretary.

The airline's net loss rose to Rs 5,422.6 crore during the period under review from Rs 3,779.26 crore reported for the previous corresponding period. These figures were a part of the unaudited standalone financial results for the half year ended September 30, 2021, as reviewed by IANS. Besides, the company reported a YoY rise in its revenue of 21 per cent to Rs 5,524 crore.

By winning its case, Air India has prevented a serious blow to the international airline industry, which is already suffering from the disruption caused by Covid-19. This is also one of the first cases where the English Courts have been asked to determine EU law post-Brexit. The dispute centered on the applicability of EU compensation regulations for a single booking, where only one leg of the booking – the only one within EU/UK jurisdiction – was delayed.

The acquisition envisaged 100 per cent equity share capital of Air India and Air India Express, and 50 per cent for that of Air India SATS Airport Services by Talace. At present, Air India is wholly owned by the government. The airline, along with AIXL, is primarily engaged in the business of providing domestic scheduled air passenger transport service, international scheduled air passenger transport service, and air cargo transport services.

An office memorandum from the Finance Ministry's Department of Expenditure said: "Recently, the Government of India has decided to disinvest Air India, and the process of disinvestment of Air India and Air India Express is ongoing." "Air India has stopped extending credit facilities on account of purchase of air tickets. Therefore, all Ministries or Departments are directed to clear Air India's dues immediately."

Sources said the successful culmination of the Air India disinvestment process has upped investor interest in picking up management control of public sector undertakings put on the block for privatisation. Overseas investors are also looking at the country's disinvestment plan with interest.

Accordingly, Talace quoted an enterprise value of Rs 18,000 crore for 100 per cent equity shareholding of Centre in Air India along with that of Air India Express and AISATS. Consequent to the acquisition, the Tatas will own 100 per cent stake in Air India as also 100 per cent in its subsidiary Air India Express and 50 per cent in the joint venture Air India SATS.