It’s the season of churn in the Indian Airline sector. The past few months have witnessed a lot of ups and downs in the industry. The pandemic struck real bad for the industry. It is still recouping from that hard blow. During the past few months, the GoAir was rebranded as GoFirst.
We also witnessed plans of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala to launch Akasa, the new airline. At the same time, Jet Airways is also planning to make a comeback after it received a boon in the form of new investors. And the most important news in the past few days was, Air India coming back to the fold of Tatas.
With all this happening in the industry, one would expect some pause in happenings in the airline industry. But, if anyone thought so, they would not be further away from reality. The string of events is still unfolding.
AirAsia is on the verge of obtaining the International flights’ permission
According to reports, AirAsia India is close to obtaining international flying rights. Once this move materializes, conglomerate Tata Sons will have four airlines with permits for overseas operations. At present, from the Tata group, only Vistara operates on international routes.
This move is of significance since Tata Sons’ subsidiary Talace is expected to soon acquire Air India and Air India Express after the conclusion of the share purchase agreement (SPA) with the Centre.
Both Air India and Air India Express have permits to operate international flights. Recently, AirAsia India, in which Tatas own a majority stake, received security clearance to operate international flights, said industry.
It is still a long way to go
Still many procedures with the country’s Civil Aviation Ministry and the regulator remain to be fulfilled before the airline commences international operations. These procedures include obtaining permissions for scheduling, slotting, and training. These steps might take anywhere up to 2-6 months to fulfill.
However, due to the ongoing pandemic, even after obtaining all the permissions, the airline might not fly abroad in the near future.
It should be the Bengaluru-headquartered airline is a joint venture between Tata Sons and AirAsia Investment Ltd. The airline which started on June 12, 2014, flies over 240 direct and connecting routes across India with a fleet of 28 aircraft.
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