Air India needs a bailout of nearly US$620 million to keep flying, a minister said in remarks published yesterday, adding that he was certain the loss-making airline would survive.
The flagship airline, which had posted a US$1.03 billion loss for the fiscal year ended March 31, and other Indian carriers have been hit by overcapacity in the industry, as well as a sharp drop in passengers due to the economic slowdown.
“The airline will survive. Every time it was in trouble the problems were rolled over, and we will roll over this time also,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told India’s Business Standard newspaper.
Patel said he did not want the government to have to bail out the state-run carrier but added that “we have to do certain things as shareholders” of the airline.
“Air India should be sold, but I’ve been asked to keep it going,” he told the newspaper.
“The airline needs a 30 billion rupee [US$618.6 million] equity infusion and the conversion of high-cost debt to low-cost debt to keep it going,” Patel added.
The airline has been seeking financial assistance from the government together with soft loans to remain afloat.
A decision by Patel to allow more private carriers to fly in India’s skies has undercut the airline’s competitive position and has led to criticism from trade unions that he has endangered the airline’s survival.
Patel said his decision was to promote the overall growth of the aviation industry.
“Do not see me as a minister for Air India,” he told the newspaper.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) plans to start mass-producing its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip in the first quarter of next year, even as it struggles to make enough chips due to US restrictions, two people familiar with the matter said. The telecoms conglomerate has sent samples of the Ascend 910C — its newest chip, meant to rival those made by US chipmaker Nvidia Corp — to some technology firms and started taking orders, the sources told Reuters. The 910C is being made by top Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) on its N+2 process, but a lack
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
RSS