Foreign carriers could have stake in domestic airlines: Minister

September 15th, 2009 Japan Airlines aims to conclude tie-up talks soonTOKYO — Struggling Japan Airlines Corp. said Tuesday it aims to conclude tie-up talks with foreign carriers by mid-October and announced plans to slash 14 percent of its workers under a major restructuring plan.

August 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Airport developers who were planning exclusive terminals for low-cost carriers have begun re-drawing plans as almost all domestic carriers are now switching to low-cost operations. "We have to rework and redraw plans as most scheduled domestic carriers will now largely operate as low-cost carriers," said an official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

August 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - A day after private airlines called off their Aug 18 strike, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Monday ruled out any kind of bailout for them or for the state-owned carrier Air India. "There is no question of a financial bailout for private airlines.

July 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Maintaining that low fare carriers were the need of the hour, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Tuesday said national carrier Air India will launch its own low-cost carrier under the existing Air India Express, which currently flies to 14 international destinations. "Air India Express will be our low-cost carrier and it has to be given a meaningful role.

June 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Paramount Airways was the most efficient in terms of sticking to flight schedules in May, beating bigger carriers such as Jet Airways, Kingfisher and Air India, according to official data released Friday. Paramount topped the efficiency list in terms of departures, scoring 89 percent, followed by IndiGo, which topped in terms of performance among the low-cost carriers with a score of 85.7 percent, the civil aviation ministry data showed.

February 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A new departure terminal at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, which will be able to handle all outbound domestic passengers, will be operational by March-end, officials said. The new terminal, 1D, set up at an investment of Rs.5 billion (Rs.500 crore), will be inaugurated Thursday, but will be opened for passengers only by March-end, said an official of Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), which runs the IGI Airport.

February 21st, 2009 MUMBAI - The government is examining a proposal to allow foreign carriers to pick up stakes in domestic airlines, which are facing a crisis on account of economic slowdown, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here Friday. 'The consultation process is on,' Patel said at the groundbreaking function for a new integrated terminal at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here to be built by a consortium led by the Hyderabad-based GVK group.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Kingfisher Airlines emerged as the dominant player in January, flying 919,000 passengers, official data released Monday showed. Jet Airways, along with its low-cost airline JetLite, was next with 837,000 passengers, while state-run Air India followed with 550,000, the civil aviation ministry said.

February 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - After Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Wednesday morning warned airline operators against 'cartelisation', the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), asked them to explain their fare hikes. The move came a day after Indian carriers, including budget airlines, withdrew promotional fares and hiked the base tariff.

February 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A day after Indian carriers, including budget airlines, decided to withdraw their promotional fares and hiked the base tariff, the government Wednesday warned operators against 'cartelisation'. 'The government is against any cartelisation among airlines.

January 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Travel agents across the country will launch a fresh round of protests Jan 30 against those foreign carriers which have refused to pay them commission, an agents body said Tuesday. Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) president Rajender Rai told IANS that 12 foreign airlines, including Singapore International Airlines (SIA), were not paying commission to the agents.

January 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Private carrier Jet Airways, together with its low-cost airline JetLite, was India's largest domestic air services operator in 2008, ferrying some 12.01 million passengers for a market share of 29.5 percent, latest data showed Tuesday. Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines, along with its budget carrier Kingfisher Red, was next, flying 11.26 million passengers to capture a 27.6 percent market share, as per data released by the civil aviation ministry.

January 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Foreign airlines may soon be allowed to buy equity stake in domestic carriers, a senior government official said here Wednesday. 'We are in talks with the industry stakeholders.

January 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's leading private carrier Jet Airways, which cut domestic fares by up to 40 percent last week, said it has no plans to slash fares on international routes. 'We don't have any proposal right now to cut fares on our international routes,' Jet Airways spokesman A.K.

January 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Travel agents have stopped selling tickets of Singapore Airlines and threatened to extend the ban to other foreign airlines as well if they did not pay commission on tickets booked by them, an association representing them said Friday. 'We have stopped issuing tickets of Singapore Airlines.