Tag Archives: Air India

TAAI-AirIndia Meeting Yields Fruitful Results for The Travel Trade Fraternity

TAAI Office Bearers and the Airline Council had a very positive meeting with senior officials of AirIndia, Nipun Aggarwal, CCO, Melwin D’Silva ED Commercial and Rajender Nath, GM , Marketing, recently.

Jyoti Mayal, President TAAI interacted in-person, whereas Jay Bhatia, VP, TAAI, Lokesh Bettaiah, HSG, TAAI, Shreeram Patel, Treasurer, TAAI and Paras Lakhia, Chairman, TAAI Airline Council joined the meeting virtually.

“We are extremely pleased to share that the main agenda of the meeting was to push to open all Flight inventories for authorised IATA agents, which was immediately actioned by AirIndia, specially the CANADA inventory has been reactivated effective 14th June on the GDS,” said TAAI.

In addition, TAAI had positive constructive discussion on the following points:

Travel Agents Remuneration – Agents invest heavily in being IATA recognised, setting up their infrastructure & resources well as generating business. AirIndia, now a TATA group company should take the initiative to remunerate authorised IATA Travel Agents with a reasonable remuneration of the fare. This positive step shall instil the confidence of their partnership and support for their largest distribution channel, the Travel Agent community. Travel Agents shall be motivated to sell more of AirIndia and will increase their loyalty to a great extent.

Web Parity – Web parity on all fares should be maintained while distributing the inventory over the Online and Offline platform. Maintaining parity would ensure the Travel Agents aren’t forced to discount their Markups/Margins in order to secure business.

More Connectivity – More direct flights should be started for Domestic and International destinations. Post Covid, Travel has opened up worldwide and there are a lot of opportunities to grab. AirIndia assured that they have roust plans for expansion of AirIndia and we shall get a lot more new exciting routes/destinations in times to come with new Aircrafts also being inducted.

Call Centre – There should be effective and dedicated Call Centre assistance for Travel Agents and passengers so that their queries can be effectively addressed.

Regular Meetings – TAAI suggested to have regular meetings at State level and National level which shall help in disseminating important information and brainstorming over any matters. Together we can create great synergy and strong partnerships.

AirIndia briefed TAAI during the meeting about their further plans on revamping and transformation of AirIndia in the times to come.

Aggarwal also briefed on the further expansion plans and the efforts being put in to improve the overall experience of flying AirIndia. AirIndia also requested TAAI to submit their suggestions to the Airline so that they can work on the same in the benefit of the Travel Agents.

Singapore’s Competition Commission raises concerns over Tata’s buying Air India

Tata Group’s acquisition of Air India is likely to run into a regulatory wall in Singapore and now the Indian conglomerate needs to convince that the takeover does not violate the country’s anti-competition laws. The country’s antitrust body, Singapore’s Competition and Consumer Commission (CCCS) hasobserved that Air India and Vistara, which is a 51:49 joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, are two of the three key market players that operate flights on Singapore-Mumbai and Singapore-Delhi routes, resulting in overlapping of both air passenger and transport routes.

“Both airlines are likely to be each other’s close, if not the closest, competitor,” the CCCS has observed.

Section 54 of the Singapore’s Competition Act, 2004, prohibits mergers that have resulted, or may be expected to result, in a substantial lessening of competition in the country. Competition issues arise under the Act if the merged entity has/will have a market share of 40% or more; or has/will have a market share of between 20% and 40%, and the post-merger combined market share of the three largest firms is 70% or more.

Merging entities are not required to notify CCCS of their merger but they are required to conduct a self-assessment to ascertain if a notification to CCCS is necessary. If they are concerned that the merger has infringed, or is likely to infringe, the Act, they should notify their merger to CCCS. In such cases, CCCS will assess the effect of the merger on competition and decide if the merger has resulted, or is likely to result, in a substantial lessening of competition in Singapore.
In October 2021, Tata Sons had acquired Air India through its wholly-owned unit Talace.

The CCCS said that it needs to assess further the extent to which SIA competes with the merged entity along these routes, as it is a joint venture partner with Tata Sons in Vistara and a prospective partner with Vistara in the Commercial Cooperation Framework Agreement.

The antitrust regulator also said it needs to assess whether the competitive constraint from other airlines such as IndiGo would be sufficient post-transaction, it added.

“At this stage, the parties (Talace and Air India) may offer commitments to address the potential competition concerns of the transaction raised by CCCS. Otherwise, the merger will proceed to a detailed further review upon CCCS’s receipt of the relevant documents. Commitments may also be offered at any time during this review,” CCCS added.

On January 6, 2022, CCCS had accepted an application from Talace seeking its review on whether the acquisition of Air India infringes Singapore’s competition Act. The antitrust body has already completed the phase-I of the review, it added. (Source: Financial Express)

Air India Made Emergency Landing After Airbus Engine Shut Mid-Air: Report

An Airbus A320neo plane of Tata Group-run Air India returned to Mumbai airport just 27 minutes after take off as one of its engines shut down mid-air due to a technical issue, sources said today.
Air India spokesperson said the passengers were flown to the destination – Bengaluru after a change of aircraft on Thursday.

Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation is conducting an investigation into this incident, sources told Press Trust of India. The Airbus A320neo planes of Air India have CFM International’s Leap engines.

The pilots of the A320neo plane received a warning about high exhaust gas temperatures on one of the engines just minutes after the aircraft’s departure from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 9:43 am.

With that engine being shut down, the pilot landed back at the Mumbai airport at 10:10 am, sources told.

When asked about the incident, Air India spokesperson said: “Air India accords top priority to safety and our crew are well adept at handling these situations. Our Engineering and Maintenance teams had immediately started looking into the issue.”

“The scheduled flight had left with passengers to Bengaluru after a change of aircraft,” the spokesperson added. (Source NDTV)

 

Air India proposes to acquire AirAsia India

Air India has proposed to acquire the entire equity of AirAsia India, reports Moneycontrol. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has also notified the proposal for Air India’s acquisition of AirAsia India.

As per the CCI notification under Section 5(a)(i)(A) and 5(b)(i)(A) of the Competition Act, 2002, the proposed combination relates to the acquisition of the entire equity share capital of AirAsia India by Air India. At present, Tata Sons (TSPL) holds 83.67 percent of the equity share capital of Air Asia India.

It further noted: “The proposed combination will not lead to any change in the competitive landscape or cause any appreciable adverse effect on competition in India, irrespective of the manner in which the relevant markets are defined.”

Notably, both airlines are run by Tata Sons — Air India is a wholly owned subsidiary, while AirAsia India is a joint venture with Malaysia’s AirAsia, which has 16.33 percent of the shareholding.

As per the notification, Air India has submitted the relevant markets, with respect to horizontal overlaps. These are the market for domestic passenger air transport services in India, the market for provision of domestic air cargo transportation services in India, and the market for provision of charter flight services in India.

It has also additionally submitted the relevant markets involving vertical overlaps. These are:

— The upstream market for ground handling services, and downstream market for passenger air transport services (including charter flight services) at the Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangalore airports; and the upstream market for cargo handling services at Bengaluru airport.

— The upstream market for cargo handling services, and the downstream markets for air cargo transportation services and charter fight services at Bengaluru airport.

— The upstream market for in-flight catering services, and the downstream market for passenger air transport services (including charter flight services) in India.

Air India takes INR 60,800cr cover for its fleet

Air India has taken a INR 60,800 crore (USD 8 billion) cover by paying INR 266 crore premium to a clutch of insurance companies, including Tata AIG General Insurance, reports Dev Chatterjee for Business Standard.

The airline managed to get a better deal as it valued its fleet lower by almost USD 2 billion. The new management held extensive negotiations – both in India and London, to get a good deal considering the rising premiums due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. As per the new policy, the airline will not be able to fly over Russian and Ukrainian airspace due to the conflict.

The new cover, effective April 1 for a year, will be marginally higher than INR 258 crore paid in the last financial year by the airline under its previous owner, the Indian government, said a source close to the development. In the last financial year, the airline had taken a cover of INR 76,000 crore (USD 10 billion). The policy also includes passenger liability in case of any mishaps. A Tata group spokesperson did not comment on the cover.

As of now, Air India has a fleet of 117 aircraft while Air India express has a fleet of 24 narrow body aircraft.

Tata AIG General Insurance for the first time received a 30 per cent share in the cover while one of its parent, AIG continued to be the re-insurer leader of the new policy. New India Assurance has taken the highest share of 40 per cent of the policy while ICICI Lombard has received six per cent share in the policy.

The Indian companies will pass on 95 per cent of the premium and risk to the foreign reinsurers so as to de-risk their books in case of any accidents. (Source: Business Standard)

 

DGCA withdraws preferential status for Air India in international traffic rights

According to a report by The Hindustan Times, two months after Tata Sons took control of Air India from the government, India’s former national carrier will no longer enjoy a priority in the allocation of international traffic rights, according to a revised set of guidelines issued by aviation watchdog, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

DGCA dropped the clause which gave the former state-owned airline an advantage over other private airlines in its revised guideline issues on April 19.

The deleted clause said, “Due consideration shall be given to operational plans submitted by Air India before allocation of the traffic rights to other eligible applicants.” This clause was part of the Guidelines for Grant of Permission to Indian Air Transport Undertakings for Operation of Scheduled International Air Transport Services, which was issued on March 15, 2017.

Bilateral air service agreements are negotiated between governments. The number of flights and destinations that airlines can operate between two countries are determined by these factors. These entitlements, which are expressed as a number of seats or flights per week, are traded on a reciprocal basis. In India, the government holds the entitlements and grants them to an airline upon request.

121 countries have signed air service agreements with India. Despite being part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the civil aviation ministry has inked separate agreements with Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Ras Al-Khaimah.