Indian News
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EFFECTIVE October 1, Air India began the day with a bang by resuming all its domestic flights at an average network-wide on time performance rate of 89.7 per cent.
In its effort to reach out to the travelling public, which may have been hassled and inconvenienced due to the strike by executive pilots in the five days, senior Air India officials were present at various airports of the country to meet and greet departing and arriving passengers. As a gesture of goodwill, passengers were presented rose-buds while being offered sincerest apologies on behalf of the airline.
A spokesman of Air India said that ticket sales for all flights, which was suspended during the strike, has been resumed.
Air India also operated a special Kolkata-Port Blair flight to clear the backlog as, during the past three days, two of its flights could not land in Port Blair because of bad weather.

Air India targetting cost savings

AIR India is proposing to effect savings of up to Rs 1,300 crore in the remaining six months of the current fiscal. Major cost-heads being targeted for attaining savings of Rs 900 crore, excluding staff costs, are:
Aircraft material costs – Rs 300 crore
Savings on fuel – Rs 100 crore
Renegotiation of handling contracts at various airports – Rs 200 crore
Elimination of wasteful expenditure in various areas and enhanced productivity norms – Rs 200 crore
Another Rs 100 crore on rentals and other administrative costs. Air India is also hopeful of rationalizing its manpower costs by Rs 400 crore as part of its operational restructuring, which is imperative for the airline in today's global context when all airlines are suffering huge loses, shedding manpower and subjecting employees to pay cuts.

Jet Airways to raise about Rs 2,000 crore

JET Airways has secured its shareholders' approval to raise up to Rs 1,917 crore to meet its working capital requirements, the company has told the Bombay Stock Exchange in a filing.
“Shareholders at the extraordinary general meeting of the company held on September 24 have passed the requisite resolution regarding the issuance of additional capital up to US$ 400 million," Jet said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The airline had earlier said it would raise the amount by private placement of shares with qualified institutional buyers or through global depository receipts, American depository receipts, and foreign currency convertible bonds. The airline has also been talking to various bankers to raise this amount through qualified institutional placements.
Jet has been trying to raise funds through rights issues for the past three years, but has failed due to adverse market conditions. The private airline suffered a net loss of Rs 225 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 on a total income of Rs 2,428 crore.
Chairman Naresh Goyal said Jet had last year deferred plans to raise funds via rights issue owing to volatile market conditions. The airline had planned to launch an issue in October last year, but deferred it to January 2009. To date, it has not raised funds via rights issue.
At its annual general meeting held earlier this year, Goyal had said that he would sell 5-10 per cent of his personal stake in the company. Goyal currently owns 80 per cent of the airline.
He said Jet is open to other sources of funding. ''Banks believe in us and would be willing to give us money when required. We are open to private equity placement and all other options. Money is not a problem for us,'' Goyal claimed.

Jet Airways wins 'Best Indian Airline' award

JET Airways was awarded the accolade of 'Best Indian Airline' at the prestigious Business Traveller Awards, on September 21 at a star-studded ceremony in London's Hilton on Park Lane.
This year's awards were presented by British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who conquered Mount Everest earlier this year at the age of 65. Nearly 450 industry leaders were present at this special event.
Co-sponsored by the Global Hotel Alliance and American Express, the Business Traveller Awards are voted for by readers of the magazine. Widely accepted and recognised as the market's benchmark for excellence, the results of the Business Traveller Awards are authenticated by means of an independent audit.
In a separate survey, 83 per cent of the Business Traveller respondents said that developing personal relationships was still the most important element of doing business, in service industries.
Jet Airways has the distinction of having won accolades in the past which include: 'Airline with Best First-Class Service in the World', by readers of the prestigious Business Traveler magazine, at the 20th Annual 'Best in Business Travel' Awards, on December 11, 2008, in Los Angeles, USA, and was voted one of the Top Three Airlines of the World by the Conde Nast Traveller readers' poll, in New York.
Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said, Chief Executive Officer of Jet Airways “We are naturally delighted on being conferred with the title of being the "Best Indian Airline" at the prestigeous Business Traveller Awards ceremony, and would like express our thanks and gratitude to the readers' of the Business Traveller magazine for their appreciation of our services.”
Jet Airways currently operates a fleet of 87 aircraft, which includes 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 12 Airbus A330-200 aircraft, 51 classic and next generation Boeing 737-400/700/800/900 aircraft and 14 modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. With an average fleet age of 4.48 years, the airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleet in the world.
Flights to 63 destinations span the length and breadth of India and beyond, including New York (both JFK and Newark), Toronto, Brussels, London (Heathrow), Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The airline will continue to connect existing international destinations with additional gateway points across its network in the future.
Jet Airways, with the acquisition of JetLite, today has a combined fleet strength of 111 aircraft and operates over 480 flights daily.