Taj ties up with airlines (for their frequent flyer programmes)
August 25
Taj group of hotels has tied up with All Nippon Airways, Sri Lankan Airlines and Etihad Airways for their frequent flyer programmes. Under the tie up, the travellers of the three airlines under the frequent flyer programme are likely to earn airline miles while staying at Taj property.
Source: Financial Express
No frills flights to crowd Indian Skies (following the success of low-cost SpiceJet and IndiGo)
August 20
No-frills (low-cost) airlines are expected to dominate the Indian airlines sector with more companies planning to launch no-frills airlines or expand existing capacities of their low-cost airline following the success of low-cost SpiceJet and IndiGo. Regular full service airlines such as Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways and Air India have been facing huge losses. Jet Airways, which launched its no-frills airline, Jet Konnect, in May 2009 has decided to transfer two-thirds of its domestic operations to the new airline. Kingfisher Airlines is looking at expanding the operations of its low-cost airlines, Kingfisher Red. Kingfisher Airlines posted a loss of Rs 2.43 billion for Apr-June 2009, while Jet Airways reported loss of Rs. 2.25 billion. Air India's loss for 2008- 2009 was Rs. 72 billion.
Source: Economic Times Top
Jet leases Boeing 777s, likely to purchase more  Airbus 330s (looking for more dry lease contracts)
August 17 and August 18
Jet Airways intends to acquire more Airbus 330 aircraft instead of Boeing 777. The aircraft is expected to be 30 percent more fuel-efficient than Boeing 777. The airline operates 10 Boeing 777s and 12 Airbus 330s in a fleet of 86 aircraft. Jet Airways has leased out seven Boeing 777s and two Airbus 330s. The airline earns nearly $19.4 million a month through leased aircraft.
Jet Airways has converted the wet lease of its aircraft to Turkish Airlines into dry lease, and is holding talks with Gulf Air and Oman Air for similar conversion. The airline had given two Airbus A-330 on wet lease to Oman Air and four Boeing 777 aircraft to Gulf Air earlier in 2009. It has delivered three Boeing 777 planes to Turkish Airlines on dry lease and another aircraft is to be delivered.
Source: Business Line
 Air India looks at new revenue streams (plans to hive off ground-handling, engineering, cargo and aviation training into joint ventures or subsidiaries)
August 9
National Aviation Company (Nacil), which operates Air India, plans to offer some services such as engineering, cargo handling and aviation training to other airlines to raise additional revenue. The airline plans to hive off its three business units - ground-handling, engineering, cargo and aviation training - into joint ventures or subsidiaries by the end of 2009-2010. Nacil expects to raise up to Rs. 9 billion a year by marketing these services on commercial terms to other airlines. In addition, Nacil is likely to generate additional revenue of Rs. 18 billion annually and reduce costs to Rs. 13 billion through various measures.
Source: Business Standard Top
Airbus Boeing plan MRO unit in Gujarat (in the 2,500-acre special economic zone on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor in south Gujarat)
August 13
Airbus and Boeing as well as the Government of Singapore are looking at setting up their maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities in a 2,500-acre special economic zone (SEZ) on the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor in south Gujarat. Promoters of the Gujarat Vittal Innovation City (GVIC) SEZ are in talks with the airline companies for setting up their MRO units in the aerospace and avionics sub-conclave being planned in the SEZ. The Korea Land Corporation of the Government of South Korea is a co-developer of the GVIC SEZ. The MRO market in India is projected to rise to $1.17 billion by 2010 from $970 million in 2008.
Source: Economic Times
Dubai based companies still keen on   Indian market
August 11, August 13
The Rs11 billion Sun Group of Chennai is planning to form a join venture (JV) airline company with Star Aviation of Dubai, which is promoted by the diversified ETA Star Group. Both the companies are expected to convert Star Aviation into a JV and rename it as Sun Star. Star Aviation holds regional licences to operate in the four states in South India, while Sun Network, a subsidiary of the Sun Group, has a non-scheduled operator licence registered under the name of Global Express.
Etihad Airways is set to launch non-stop, four-times-a-week flights between Hyderabad and its home base Abu Dhabi in Nov 2009. The airline is also seeking further traffic rights from Abu Dhabi to other Indian cities, including Bangalore.
Moreover, low-budget airline FlyDubai says that it is committed to its operations in India despite having temporarily suspended flights to Lucknow, Coimbatore and Chandigarh. The flights to these locations are down due to operational issues.
Source: Economic Times
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States reluctant to trim sales tax on aviation fuel (they have been asked to reduce ATF sales tax to four percent levels)
August 18
The Government of India has started putting pressure on State governments to reduce sales tax on aviation turbine fuel in order to help the struggling domestic airline industry. The government had asked them to reduce ATF sales tax to four percent levels as prevalent in Andhra Pardesh. Most of the states levy 20-30 percent sales tax and are unwilling to reduce the tax since it would lead to revenue slippages. The Government of Karnataka has reduced sales tax to four percent for those airlines willing to draw the fuel from Hubli and Belgaum, but very few airlines operate to these destinations.
Source: Business Line
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