Free Trial

Air Finance Journal Copying and distributing are prohibited without permission of the publisher

Indian merger balancing act

01 September 2006

Read more: AIR INDIA; INDIAN AIRLINES;MERGER

Even as the merger of Air India and Indian gains momentum, the two state-run carriers seem to be meticulously approaching their refurbishment plans.

Air India, which signed an order with Boeing for 68 aircraft earlier this year, is gearing up to sport its new look after the receipt of new widebodied aircraft from February next year.

The airline' s board of directors is believed to have sanctioned a budget of $89 million to be spent over a two-year period. This is for refurbishing the existing aircraft fleet and upgrading lounges, ticketing and customer interaction services, aircraft interiors, upholstery and livery.

When the merger plans emerged, internal issues such as organization structure and cost of operation were termed among critical factors. While Indian is said to have 18,000 employees, Air India has about 15,000. Air India is also working on a change management programme as part of a business process re-engineering exercise....


Quote

“At the current pricing it will become attractive again to issue Ex-Im-guaranteed bonds. This will help stabilize and drive pricing down from where it is now.”

Kostya Zolotusky, managing director, capital markets, Boeing Capital, says about the price of export credit.

Upcoming Events