Emirates to wet-lease an A330 freighter

Sixteen entities eye SriLankan Airlines stake - report

Sixteen potential bidders have expressed interest in participating in the partial privatisation of SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo International), according to a report in the local weekly The Sunday Times.

Phase one of the Sri Lankan government's bid to divest a majority stake in the national carrier required potential bidders to submit a request for qualification (RFQ) closes shortly. The Colombo-based newspaper reported, citing government sources, that Etihad Airways, Emirates, and India's Adani Group had all submitted RFQs, while Tata Sons, widely rumoured to be interested in a stake, did not. The CEO of Tata Sons-owned Air India had previously stated that he had no interest in the airline.

ch-aviation had previously reported that Emirates and Adani were eyeing a shareholding in the Sri Lankan carrier. Emirates previously owned a 43.63% stake in SriLankan Airlines and managed the carrier's day-to-day operations but divested under acrimonious circumstances in 2010.

The Sri Lankan government's advisor on the partial privatisation, World Bank Group member the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is reportedly assisting in...

Air India CEO backs stalling foreign carrier access to India

The CEO of Air India (AI, Mumbai International) has called on the Indian government to continue carefully managing any additional capacity rights it allocates to foreign carriers, arguing that local airlines need the chance to grow first and become more effective competitors.

“I think the strategy is to contain traffic rights expansion so that local airlines have the opportunity to spin up and attain scale and become competitive," Campbell Wilson told the Hindustan Times, adding that traffic liberalisation can and should happen after this occurs.

"A balance that has to be struck, allowing the market to grow but also incubate your local market because that's fundamentally the most beneficial thing you can do for the economy," he said. "The idea is to support Indian aviation. I think it's the right thing to do for the development of Indian aviation, and also Indian business and international connectivity."

Multiple foreign operators are seeking new or additional traffic rights in and out of India. However, the Indian government has declined to grant them, being keen to shore up...

Qatar Airways tax evasion investigation underway in India

A long-running investigation by Indian financial crime agencies into alleged tax evasion by Middle Eastern airlines has recently focused on Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) and resulted in a request for documents from the airline and searches of the Indian offices of several Middle Eastern carriers.

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), the Indian law enforcement agency responsible for tax evasion, led the office searches in October, which included searches of Qatar Airways' premises. Saying the focus on the Qatari airline was still in its "very initial stage," a DGGI spokesperson has also told Indian media outlets that the agency had uncovered incidents of tax evasion totalling INR57 billion rupees (USD685.1 million) involving over 6,000 fake instances of input tax credit claims between April 2020 and September. It is unclear whether the figures relate specifically to Qatar Airways or also include the other carriers under investigation. ch-aviation does not say that Qatar Airways or any other carrier has evaded taxes in India, only that allegations have been made and an investigation is underway.

Emirates mulls prolonging A380 ops into the early 2040s

Emirates (EK, Dubai International) plans to continue operating its fleet of A380-800s into the late 2030s or early 2040s, President Tim Clark told CNBC. The carrier signed various maintenance deals to "maintain and improve operational efficiency, as well as maximise fleet performance and reliability" of the type.

"Emirates will leverage, at scale, the expertise and capabilities of partners including Honeywell Aerospace, Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Lufthansa Technik, OEM Services, Gameco, Haeco, and others to optimise its A380 fleet's lifespan and unlock additional operational efficiency gains, all at its exacting standards," the airline said.

Contracts signed during the Dubai Airshow 2023 are reportedly worth over USD1.5 billion. They include base maintenance, spare parts supply, and C-Check contracts. The C-Checks will be performed by Lufthansa Technik at Manila Ninoy Aquino International airport, by Gameco at Guangzhou airport, and by Haeco at Xiamen airport.

The carrier operates 119 A380s, of which 92 are currently active. The others were parked during the COVID-19 pandemic, but are expected to be back into...