Air India will be transferred to Tata Group, the new owner, by the third week of January 2022, Union aviation minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia said at the Times Now Summit 2021 yesterday(11th Nov.2021). India will also see a startup, Akasa, take to the skies along with a reborn Jet Airways next year. January 23 is the 'long stop date' by which Tatas have to take over the airlines.
Soaring aviation turbine fuel prices have led to a 400% increase in Indian airlines’ operating cost in recent months, Scindia said, adding that had the government not recently raised domestic fare bands by 12.5%, there “won’t have been any airline left for us to board”.
“We are seeing a tremendous amount of green shoots. The last weekend saw a high of 3.8 lakh passengers daily, with the pre-Covid high being 4.2 lakh. So we are only 10% below the pre-Covid high. Almost 90% of (domestic) traffic has recovered. But it is important to be cautious,” he said.