‘Air India to turn financially attractive before divestment’
New Delhi: More investments with strict riders have been planned to make Air India financially attractive before starting any new round of divestment, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu has said. As per the plan, Air India would be allowed to induct more aircraft to grow its market share, while a search-cum-selection committee will scout for the best management talent for the company. The airline group with a consolidated debt level of around Rs 55,000 crore will also be required to sell non-core assets, and adhere to a Rs 2,000 crore cost saving plan. Also Read – Thermal coal import may surpass 200 MT this fiscalAccording to the minister, the financially challenged airline will induct three aircraft on a dry-lease within the next two months. “Air India placed order for induction of 27 A320 NEO on dry lease basis. Out of 27, 24 have already been inducted and remaining 3 will be inducted within next two months,” the minister told IANS. In 2018, the company failed to find any suitors during the last and the only attempt by the government to divest its stake in the airline business. Also Read – Food grain output seen at 140.57 mt in current fiscal on monsoon boost”Government has prepared a ‘Revival Plan’ of Air India… which includes a comprehensive financial package, transferring non-core debt and assets to an SPV (special purpose vehicle),” Prabhu told IANS. “We have also proposed to induct eminent persons on the board of Air India through ‘Search-cum-Selection Committee’ process.” Last month, the Union Cabinet approved creation of an SPV — Air India Assets Holding Ltd — for transferring the accumulated working capital loans of the national carrier. It has also approved the associated activities for the disinvestment of Air India and its subsidiaries or joint ventures. Accordingly, Rs 29,000 crore debt of Air India along with four of its subsidiaries will be transferred to the SPV. Non-core assets like paintings and artefacts and other non-operational assets will also be transferred to the SPV. The move assumes significance as it will lessen the interest payment obligation of the airline. The Centre has also invited “Expression of Interest” for strategic divestment of the carrier’s ground handling subsidiary Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL) which has been transfeered to the SPV. The disinvestment proceeds from the sale will be used to pay off the debt incurred by the SPV.
If you knew that your $25 barramundi meal at your favourite restaurant was in fact caught in South East Asia a week ago, would you buy it?A senate enquiry into seafood labelling is causing panic in the restaurant and take-away industries, as it looks into whether consumers deserve more transparency at the cash register.At the wholesale end of the industry, all their products have to come with a country of origin label, but restaurateurs and local take-away owners don’t need to offer the same.Many businesses feel they will lose customers if they are forced to identify where their seafood comes from, but also feel good quality imports will be given a bad name. Steve Soultanidis, owner of Oakleigh Fish & Chippery, says all fish and chip shop owners should be striving to serve Australian produce but says some imported seafood is just as good if not better. “There are some imported products that are unbelievably great, imported prawns are absolutely amazing,” he says.“But mostly the local stuff is better.”He has seen colleagues get lured by the cheaper cost of imported products but says they’ve paid the price for it. “If you buy a Chinese fish it’s a lot cheaper, you’re basically looking at half the price on a box of flake, but the product is not very good at all,” he says.“It’s night and day, you can just tell, you’ll lose a customer overnight.”Greek restaurant Alpha Ouzeri says restaurants who take pride in their produce see that the investment is worth it. Despite running a Greek restaurant, chef Hristos Katopodis goes out of his way to use Australian seafood, which he believes is some of the best in the world. “The best snapper is in Victoria, octopus, calamari, prawns, whiting is in South Australia,” he says.“Victorian scallops are the best scallops in the world.”Mr Katopodis chooses to tell his customers where his seafood comes from to be very transparent and to create more interest in local produce. He says customers are much more aware of what constitutes a good, fresh bit of seafood and are prepared to pay for it.“They know what a good fish is, you can’t be tricking them,” he says.Three quarters of all seafood consumed in Australia is imported. At the wholesaler level, it’s a mixed bag of what clients ask for.Queen Victoria Market fishmonger George Milonas says he sells more Australian seafood to locals during market days, but fills more mixed orders from the restaurant industry. “There’s a mixture of both out there, so I wouldn’t say that one is predominately local, or one is predominately imported,” he tells Neos Kosmos.“There are some stores that like to specialise in local produce.”He feels many of his clients won’t be happy having to fork out more to buy fresher local products to appease customer demands. “I’m sure the restaurateur would just like to put whatever they want on the menu,” he says. “I think some of the restaurants won’t be happy.”Although the senate enquiry won’t be finished until October 27, some politicians would like to see the rulings legislated to follow the Northern Territory’s model. The Territory has had stricter seafood labelling laws in place for more than five years, forcing restaurants and local take-away shops to display where their seafood comes from.Independent senator Nick Xenophon says the Northern Territory has shown the law is a success.“There’s no reason we can’t roll that out to the rest of the country,” Senator Xenophon says.He believes local industry will be the biggest winners if the laws are put in place nationally. “If we had decent country of origin labelling laws it would actually create many thousands of Australian jobs,” he said this week. Another issue high on the agenda of the enquiry is to standardise the names of 4,000 Australian and imported fish species. A barramundi, a local Australian fish, is exactly the same as a sea bass that’s imported, but a restaurateur can label the fish as they like. The Australian Barramundi Farmers Association spokesperson, Chris Calogeras, says labelling is hurting the local industry. “When people see the word barramundi they equate it with Australia and it may or may not be,” he says. Between five and six thousand tonnes of barramundi are produced in Australian each year, valued at $50-60 million.About 1,500 tonnes is caught wild, while 13,000 tonnes are imported. Facebook Twitter: @NeosKosmos Instagram
State Troopers are investigating an assault in Kotlik after a pregnant victim’s baby died.Download AudioTroopers say a family member assaulted the pregnant woman and following the assault, the woman’s child was lost due to “unknown circumstances.” They’re looking whether the loss of the fetus was connected with the assault.Troopers learned of the incident Thursday morning and responded to the village. The alleged assault took place last Monday. The investigation is still underway, according to a trooper dispatch.Troopers say any charges, if warranted, will be send to the district attorney’s office.
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Finance Ministry Arun JaitleyIANSFinance Minister Arun Jaitley is unlikely to continue in his current role due to poor health as Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins his second term, according to four sources with knowledge of the matter.The sources said that Jaitley, 66, is unlikely to take up any offer to continue in the top job steering Asia’s third-largest economy as his health has deteriorated over the past few months.Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party swept the Indian general election with a historic mandate of about 300 out of 542 parliamentary seats that were contested, results announced by the Election Commission of India on May 23 showed.”He is definitely not taking the post of the finance minister simply because he is very unwell,” one of the sources, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.”If at all, he might take up a less stressful role.”Jaitley did not return messages. His mobile phone didn’t ring.His officer on special duty, Paras Sankhla, did not respond to calls, mail and messages. Jaitley’s personal secretary S.D. Ranakoti and assistant secretary Padam Singh Jamwal did not immediately respond to an email.Jaitley, who is one of the top three leaders in the BJP and the government, after Modi and party President Amit Shah, was not seen at the celebrations at BJP headquarters on Thursday night. Both Modi and Shah gave victory speeches at the event.He has not been seen in public for at least two weeks but has been publishing blogs and messages on social media.CHIEF TROUBLESHOOTER REUTERS/Anindito MukherjeeIn his latest message on social media, Jaitley congratulated Prime Minister Modi and all the workers of the BJP and its allies on the victory.”Aspirational India does not accept royalties, dynasties and caste-based parties,” he said in an apparent swipe at the opposition Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi, the fourth scion of the Gandhi family.Jaitley, a lawyer-turned-politician, is one of the most important leaders in the current cabinet. He often acts as chief troubleshooter.In the past five years, Jaitley has steered through parliament major economic legislation such as a nationwide goods and services tax – which had languished for nearly two decades – and has defended controversial policies for the government.Modi had given him the responsibility of three ministries when he first took office in 2014, finance, defence and information and broadcasting ministries.A diabetic, Jaitley’s health issues became worse after he had a kidney transplant in May last year. He also had to skip the interim budget in February when he was in hospital in the United States getting cancer treatment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah wave at party workers during a party programme in New Delhi on May 23, 2019.IANSShah, Modi’s right hand man, could be a candidate to take up the finance ministry, according to a senior minister in the current government, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.India’s economy is showing major signs of a slowdown after three consecutive years of 7% plus growth rates and the next finance minister is expected to seek to provide some economic stimulus without blowing the lid off the nation’s fiscal deficit.Piyush Goyal, 54, current railways and coal minister, also could be considered given that he stepped into the role twice in the Modi government between 2014 and 2019 when Jaitley was out sick.
Ubisoft’s public relations department must be pulling its hair out right now due to the mixed messages coming out about Assassin’s Creed Unity. Yesterday, Ubisoft senior producer Vincent Pontbriand confirmed that Unity Best Price at Amazon would be locked at a 900p resolution and 30fps on both the Xbox One and PS4. The reason was one of AI and a CPU-bound game, not anything to do with platform parity.However, before the day was over Ubisoft was backtracking. That 900p/30fps lock? It doesn’t exist. Well, it doesn’t exist yet. Ubisoft is now stating that the final technical specification for Unity on PS4 and Xbox One has not been locked down. So what exactly was Pontbriand talking about?It may be that he got confused because last week a preview build of Unity was shown running at 900p/30fps. On the other hand he may have just pre-empted what Ubisoft intends to do for launch, only Ubisoft doesn’t want that confirmed just yet because of the negative press it could, and already has, generated.As I said yesterday, I suspect Assassin’s Creed Unity will be 900p and 30fps at launch on both consoles, but as happened with Black Flag, it is likely the PS4 version will be patched to 1080p before the end of the year. Even if it isn’t, it has been shown multiple times that the PS4 has more performance to take advantage of. If Unity has some intensive gameplay areas and is CPU-bound as Pontbriand claims, Sony’s hardware will cope better.Whatever platform you choose to play on, Ubisoft is claiming this is the best looking Assassin’s Creed title it has ever created. It’s just a shame that fact is being lost in a lack of public relations organization and mis-information coming out of the company.
Holland America launches ‘Pack These Values’ promotion Thursday, March 21, 2019 Tags: Deals, Holland America Line Travelweek Group SEATTLE — Holland America Line wants passengers to ‘Pack These Values’ with a promotion on select 2019-2020 cruises and Alaska Land+Sea Journeys.The new offer, launched March 20, comes with pre-paid gratuities, 50% reduced deposits and free or reduced fares for kids (or adults) in the same stateroom sailing as third or fourth guests, for eligible sailings.Bookings must be made by May 15 to qualify.“With every promotion we look at how we can enhance the value of a cruise vacation even further and what perks are most attractive, and the offers with Pack These Values add a lot of incentives,” says Holland America Line President, Orlando Ashford. “Cruises are perfect family vacations, whether it’s a small family of four or a large multi-generational group, and with the kids free and reduced fares there’s no better time to see the world together and make some incredible memories.”Pack These Values is good on a variety of itineraries from October 2019 through April 2020.More news: Direct Travel names Smith as Senior VP, Leisure Marketing, North AmericaDestinations include Alaska, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Canada/New England, Caribbean, Cuba, Hawaii, the Mediterranean, Mexico, Northern Europe, Panama Canal, South America and South Pacific.
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In testimony before Congress, U.S. Travel Association president and chief executive Roger Dow said that travel from the Asia-Pacific region to the United States was “critical” to the US economy.Pleading for a Congressional focus on Asia-Pacific-sourced tourism, Mr Dow said that future government policy should center on ensuring growth from the region. “Nearly a quarter of the increase in travel exports over the past two years has come from four countries in the Asia-Pacific region: Australia, China, Japan and South Korea,” he stated. “Collectively, the spending by these four countries in 2011 supported 233,000 U.S. jobs, 14,200 more than were supported in 2010.”With many long-haul passengers experiencing delays of up to three hours at some international terminals, the U.S. Travel boss placed a particular emphasis on the need for better passenger processing at American airports.Among his recommendations for the improved facilitation of visitors was the establishment of a passenger wait time goal of 20 minutes per individual at international airports; a measurement of the customer service performance of CBP officers at airports; a fully implemented Global Entry trusted traveler agreement with South Korea within the next few months; and the expeditious negotiation of Global Entry agreements with Australia, Japan and Singapore.”The United States must be able to process visitors securely and efficiently through its airports,” Mr Dow remarked. “Doing so will bring significant economic benefit to destinations throughout our country.”According to the U.S. Travel Association, outbound travel from Australia, China, Japan and South Korea is expected to increase by 24 million over the next five years. Source = e-Travel Blackboard: M.H
MTA – Mobile Travel Agents’ Member, Amanda Erwin, recently visited the ‘land of the rising sun’ as part of an intensive EXO Travel Japan study tour, combining stays in both traditional Ryokan-style accommodation and several of the country’s first-class properties.Taking in Tokyo, Hakone, Odawara, Ise-Shi and Kyoto, Amanda’s sightseeing opportunities included a Tokyo Street Food Tour with a visit to the world-famous Tsukiji Fish Markets, Mount Fuji, a Lake Ashinoko cruise, a Bullet Train experience and a cycling tour of the Kyoto Peninsula. JapanMTA
Lead image – Some of the Savenio team at the Savenio Travel Hub in Brisbane. Go back to the enewsletter Go back to the enewsletterFast growing luxury travel agency network, Savenio, will bring together around 40 of its Independent Travel Designers for the inaugural Savenio Symposium to be held in Brisbane on 6-7 July.“Savenio’s team of Independent Travel Designers is growing rapidly and we are now at the point where we want to bring everyone together to celebrate our success and support each other in learning,” Savenio Managing Director, David Brandon said today.“This year we have welcomed a dozen new Independent Travel Designers to the network – advisors who have recognised the value of running their own business while enjoying the benefits and connections the Savenio network offers.“At Savenio, we believe independence should be strengthened by the combined power of our group and not weakened by an inability to make the choices that are right for clients, free from influence, pressure or bias.”Savenio Managing Director, David Brandon“As a finalist in the National Travel Industry Awards ‘Best Travel Broker Network’ category, Savenio has defined itself as a leading industry network and we are building a strong and supportive group of independently minded luxury travel designers across Australia.“The success of the Savenio model is evidenced by the multitude of awards our network and individual brokers have won over the past year including Virtuoso’s Asia Pacific Cruise Production Award, Crystal’s Top Producing Cruise Award and the Etihad Sales Award.”Savenio’s Independent Travel Designers will hear from an exclusive range of supplier partners and look at issues including upselling to luxury, working smarter and luxury cruising.The event will be held in and around Savenio’s new office space in Brisbane’s iconic Waterfront Place, home of the first Savenio Travel Hub.