India's leading private carrier Jet Airways said yesterday it is buying rival Air Sahara for US$500 million in a takeover that will create the country's largest airline.
Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Air Sahara signed the deal -- the biggest in India's aviation history -- late on Wednesday, paving the way for a strategic alliance between the two carriers initially and a full-fledged merger eventually, Jet chairman Naresh Goyal said.
Air Sahara, a family-run company that is not publicly listed, has been losing money and is estimated to have piled up 6 billion to 7 billion rupees (US$120 million) in debt.
"We are not getting into liabilities. The total deal is valued at US$500 million, taking into consideration the parking slot, the infrastructure, the aircraft," Goyal told reporters after the company filed a notice of the deal to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Earlier yesterday, Jet's board of directors approved the acquisition.
Deal boosts Shares
Investors welcomed the news, sending Jet Airways' shares up 2.6 percent to 1,158 rupees in early trading.
Goyal, who described the deal as a "total takeover," said his airline was not planning to retain all of Air Sahara's staff.
"No, we are not absorbing all staff. We will be taking pilots, technical staff and cabin crew, [but] it will be done on the basis of merit," he said.
Those comments appeared to spark protests among Air Sahara pilots, who decided to strike immediately to express opposition to the deal, the CNBC-TV18 channel reported.
Market share
The merged entity will control more than 50 percent of India's aviation market.
Last year, Jet Airways overtook state-owned Indian Airlines in flying the most passengers. With the acquisition of Sahara, it will also now have the largest fleet of aircraft.
Jet Airways flew 9 million passengers last year, up 14 percent from the previous year, while Indian Airlines carried 8.7 million people, up 3.5 percent from 2004. Sahara flew 3.5 million.
Jet's fleet include 52 aircraft, mostly Boeing planes, while Sahara has 27. Indian Airlines has an Airbus-dominated fleet of 77 planes, including 10 flown by its subsidiary Alliance Air.
India's aviation sector has experienced robust growth in recent years after being opened up to private carriers as part of a broader government liberalization program begun in the early 1990s.
The competition has brought down fares, which is attracting more passengers.
Aviation officials expect the number of fliers to grow from around the current 20 million a year to around 50 million in 2010.
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
The zero emissions ship Porrima P111 was launched yesterday in Kaohsiung, showcasing the nation’s advancement in green technology, city Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said. The nation last year acquired the Swiss-owned vessel, formerly known as Turanor PlanetSolar, in a bid to boost Taiwan’s technology sector, as well as ecotourism in Palau, Chen said at the ship’s launch ceremony at Singda Harbor. Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) also attended the event. The original vessel was the first solar-powered ship to circumnavigate the globe in a voyage from 2010 to 2012. Taiwan-based Porrima Inc (保利馬) installed upgrades with
ENHANCE DETERRENCE: Taiwan has to display ‘fierce resolve’ to defend itself for China to understand that the costs of war outweigh potential gains, Koo said Taiwan’s armed forces must reach a high level of combat readiness by 2027 to effectively deter a potential Chinese invasion, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) published yesterday. His comments came three days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the US Senate that deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan requires making a conflict “cost more than what it’s worth.” Rubio made the remarks in response to a question about US policy on Taiwan’s defense from Republican Senator John Cornyn, who said that Chinese
RSS