Air India

In the National capital, ATF prices for domestic airlines increased by 2.44 per cent from Rs 68,262.35 per kilo litre on July 1 to Rs 69,857.97 on July 16. In Mumbai too ATF rose from a level of Rs 66,482.90 per Kl to Rs 68,064.65 per Kl on Friday. The move is expected to make air travel more expensive, further impacting demand.

According to industry sources, the data breach has impacted other global airlines as well. Recently, systems of SITA PSS came under a cyber-security attack leading to personal data leak of certain passengers. The vendor is responsible for storing and processing of personal information of the passengers. In a statement on Friday, Air India said the incident has affected around 4,500,000 data subjects in the world.

Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri said that financial bids for the national carrier will be submitted sometime in May. He said that the timeline for the submission of financial bids was decided in a meeting on Thursday.

The transaction advisor to the government, Ernst & Young, informed the employees of Air India that they have been unsuccessful in qualifying for the next phase of the ‘disinvestment acquisition process' on account of inadequate details of the Seychelles-based fund.

Market insiders have cited that the commencement of the inoculation drive has raised travellers' optimism, which will not only boost air travel, but also the entire hospitality value chain. Consequently, industry players like ixigo have seen a surge in demand and search queries.

The first shot in this war of extremely low prices was fired recently with most airlines commencing their sales offers. The development comes around a year since Covid-19 lockdown devastated the sector. Industry insiders, however, now believe that the roll-out of anti-Covid-19 vaccination programme will give a boost to air travel.

People in the know of the developments said that the transaction advisors are in touch with the interested bidders regarding several queries and the qualified bidders will be intimated only after the government is satisfied with the responses from the bidders.

The process has been divided into two stages. In stage I, expressions of interest (EoI) have been submitted by interested bidders and they will be shortlisted based on eligibility criteria and other terms mentioned in the Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM). In the stage II, shortlisted interested bidders will be provided with a request for proposal (RFP) and thereafter there will be a transparent bidding process, said a presentation by the ministry.

In a letter to Puri, the AIEU said that the existing medical scheme in Air India should be continued as it is for the serving and retired employees. On provident fund, the union said that there are two separate Provident Fund trusts in erstwhile Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines which are governed by the 1925 PF Trust Act.