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karatecatman


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Jet and Sahara --- cat fight
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Battle Royale: Airline tussle takes ugly turn
[ Friday, June 23, 2006 12:54:08 amTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1672631.cms
 
NEW DELHI: The dogfight in the Indian skies turned nastier on Thursday.


Within hours of its Rs 2,300-crore merger with Jet Airways falling apart, Subrata Roy-led Air Sahara has written to the government to terminate their wide-body aircraft lease agreement which is now threatening to push Jet's ambitious plan to expand services to London into turbulence.


Even as this corporate battle rages, the two airlines are now preparing for a no-holds-barred courtroom battle.


Both sides have also lined up a battery of lawyers with noted advocate Harish Salve leading the Air Sahara team and Fali S Nariman appearing for Jet for a face-off in the Lucknow district court on Friday.


Besides, they have separately moved court again on Thursday seeking a hearing before any plea filed by the other is admitted.


With Jet refusing to extend its share-purchase agreement beyond midnight Wednesday, the Sahara India management took charge of their airline business and started operations on its own.


"We have also written to the DGCA stating that our wet-lease agreement with Jet for the Boeing 767 wide-body aircraft should not be endorsed.


We hope to get this plane back into our fleet soon and restart our London service, which was discontinued by Jet, in August this year," Air Sahara president Alok Sharma told The Times of India.


With this, Jet would be unable to expand its services to London, as it had planned to do this July by adding a daily on the Mumbai-London route and a daily Amritsar-London operation.


Jet has four wide-bodies planes three A340 and one A330 which would not be enough to start all the additional flights, sources said. Jet officials were not available for comment.


Even the two airlines prepared for the face-off on Friday over the Rs 1,500 crore escrow account, Sahara officials put up a brave face saying the airline was not facing any cash crunch, and preparing to enhance its yields and revenue with 16 new aircraft set to join its fleet shortly.


"Two new Boeing 737-800 joined our fleet in February-march, another two will be coming in April-September followed by two more in December-January. These are part of a deal inked before the sale agreement with Jet.


Besides, we had also signed a deal in December 2005 for 10 new Boeing 737-800, the delivery period for which are to be conveyed now," Sharma said.


Sharma spent the day focussing on proper scheduling of flights, ensuring deployment of aircraft and duty allocation, especially of cabin and cockpit crew.


Immediately after taking charge, Sharma held a series of meetings with heads of departments of the airline to restore normalcy in the operations, which were in a state of flux.


The failure of the deal came five months after the tie-up was announced and both sides have gone to court over money lodged in an escrow account.



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Jet recalls executives, Sahara flies on its own


 


http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?autono=96010&leftnm=1&subLeft=0&chkFlg=



Our Corporate Bureau / Mumbai/New Delhi June 23, 2006









A day after the collapse of Jet Airways’ agreement to acquire Air Sahara, both airlines began operating on their own today, rolling back the partial integration that had taken place since the signing of the deal on January 19 this year.

 

The management control of Air Sahara, which to a great extent had gone into Jet’s hands, was restored to Subroto Roy’s Sahara Group.

 

Air Sahara executives said the airline had written to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, saying that its agreement to lease a wide-bodied plane to Jet be cancelled. Jet had deployed the aircraft for its international operations.

 

Agency reports said Air Sahara today filed a caveat before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, pleading that the company be heard before any order was passed on the dispute over transfer of management control to Jet.

 

According to PTI, the home ministry has cleared Jet Chairman Naresh Goyal’s appointment to the board of Air Sahara.

 

Many of Air Sahara’s flights were delayed by two-three hours and its engineering service disrupted today. Airport sources said this was the result of Jet withdrawing its executives — including vice-president (marketing) Gaurang Shetty and chief operating officer Dale Moss — and engineers.

 

However, Air Sahara President Alok Sharma said the reasons for the delay were routine. “The Air Sahara team has taken full charge of operations and is capable of running them smoothly,” he said.

 

Jet Airways ended common ticket sales, passenger exchange, flight-swapping and corporate and agency agreements with Air Sahara.

 

Sources said Jet Airways had also dropped maintenance-checks for Air Sahara’s CRJ and Boeing 737 aircraft. It was also on the verge of terminating the vendor support arrangement for supply of spare parts.

 

Jet’s Thomas Kuhn, who was heading the engineering and maintenance wing of Air Sahara, and Poh Leong Choo, head of customer services and in-flight service departments, have been recalled.

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karatecatman


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Not facing any financial crunch, to get new planes: Air Sahara


http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200606221912.htm


New Delhi, June 22. (PTI): Air Sahara today said it was not facing any financial crunch and will be getting new aircraft deliveries, as it moves forward to get back its revenue share, a day after its takeover deal by Jet Airways collapsed.

"The airline is not facing any financial crunch at all," Air Sahara President Alok Sharma told PTI here.

He said the immediate aim of the airline is "target to get back our revenue share".

Sharma said Air Sahara had got two Boeing 737-800s aircraft in February-March this year and was expecting more deliveries this year.

"Now we will get two more in August-September and two more in December-January," he added.

Sharma said the airline was considering advancing the delivery schedule of the aircraft ordered in January.



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Air Sahara takes to the skies alone 


http://news.moneycontrol.com/india/news/business/airsaharaaloksharma/airsaharatakestoskiesalone/market/stocks/article/222333
 
2006-06-23 10:39    
After almost three months Sahara is back to managing its airline. And this is not the best of times, Sahara's market share is down and senior employees have quit. So can it fly alone? The flight ahead maybe difficult, but not impossible, reports CNBC-TV18.


Judging by these figures, Air Sahara is in deep trouble. 10 aircrafts out of a fleet of 27 are grounded for technical reasons. The first fight will be to get all planes in the air. Retaining skilled staff is the other challenge. 35 pilots and some engineers have already resigned, with more threatening to follow.


In the past 3 months, Jet Airways was supervising a majority of crucial operations. With them gone, Air Sahara has to re-staff operations. But the airline is putting up a brave face.


Exec President, Air Sahara, Alok Sharma says, "We are on schedule. We are alright. We have done this for long."


Air Sahara says that it needs about USD 150 million to be fighting fit. Aviation analysts estimate the figure at upward of USD 400 million. Raising it won't be easy. Air Sahara has also been losing money, but so have the other airlines. The bigger threat is the information outage. In the lead up to the cancelled deal, Jet has gathered enough inside information on Air Sahara to hurt it.   


Director, CAPA, Kapil Kaul says, "They can seriously hurt Air Sahara." Data mining by Jet could also keep prospective buyers away. In a sensitive sector like aviation, secrets are closely guarded.


The next few months will be crucial for Air Sahara. It will have to revamp operations, rejuvenate its staff in an effort to try and re-establish its foothold on the tarmac. The task is a difficult one, but not impossible if they get some money.
 
 
 



-- Edited by karatecatman at 15:07, 2006-06-23

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Nimish


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karatecatman wrote:
Not facing any financial crunch, to get new planes: Air Sahara
..."The airline is not facing any financial crunch at all," Air Sahara President Alok Sharma told PTI here.
...

I wonder what Mr. Sharma is smoking! I want some of that as well

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the_380


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But Jet has already wasted a good amount of time and money behind S2

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HAWK21M


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Now its Dirty Linen in Public washing Time I guess.

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VABBy


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 i Read an article in ET which talk about Mr Alok Sharma quoting that S2 ordered 10 Boeing 737-800 aircraft in 2005 anyone has a clue on this one as to when exactly the order was placed and when the planes are coming???



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karatecatman


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India's Jet Airways may settle out of court with Sahara over failed deal -report
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E-mail | Comments | E-Mail Newsletters | My Yahoo! | RSShttp://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/06/27/afx2841911.html












India's Jet Airways may settle out of court with Sahara over failed deal -report
06.27.2006, 01:41 AM














BOMBAY (XFN-ASIA) - Jet Airways is considering an early out-of-court settlement with Air Sahara following the failure of their 500 mln usd merger deal, the Economic Times reported, citing unnamed sources.

It said Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal has convened an urgent meeting of the carrier's top management at his London residence to discuss the matter.

The newspaper cited sources as saying that Jet and Sahara have been advised that a protracted legal battle will not benefit either side.

Both Jet and Sahara went to court after the deal collapsed, over money lodged in escrow accounts earlier.

A Sahara group executive was quoted as saying: 'Our legal team is working overtime, and it is too premature to talk about out-of-court settlement.'

rc/


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the_380


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RE: Jet and Sahara --- cat fight
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vabby wrote:

   i Read an article in ET which talk about Mr Alok Sharma quoting that S2 ordered 10 Boeing 737-800 aircraft in 2005 anyone has a clue on this one as to when exactly the order was placed and when the planes are coming???
S2 ordering 10 B737 aircraft thats ridiculous any link to that i checked out boeing website.. no such news must be used aircraft or leased 

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karatecatman


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Air Sahara says it will continue to follow the model of using leased jets.

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It`s business as usual, claims Sahara
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The link


http://www.business-standard.com/compindustry/storypage.php?leftnm=1&subLeft=1&chklogin=N&autono=96166&tab=r


 


It`s business as usual, claims Sahara





Our Corporate Bureau / New Delhi June 26, 2006









Three days after the deal to sell the airline to rival Jet Airways fell through, business is slowly getting back to normal at Air Sahara.

 

According to Air Sahara insiders, the airline’s operations were gradually rolling back on course, with the engineering requirement of the airline having been fixed. Sources said Air Sahara had started negotiations with other airlines for an engineering-level collaboration.

 

Lack of engineering support had led to major delays in the first few days of Air Sahara’s independent operations, since June 22. Airport sources said today most of Air Sahara’s flights took off without major delays.

 

Minor delays were minimal at about 5 to 7 per cent of 125 flights a day. Compared with this, on Friday, about 10 per cent of the airline’s flights faced major delays and a large number of minor ones.

 

“We understand there were delays in the first few days. The immediate priority is to ensure that the flights take off on time,” an Air Sahara executive said.

 

Air Sahara sources said the airline had not seen any fall in booking since the deal fell through. The airline’s load factor — about 63 per cent in April — had improved to about 70 per cent in the last few weeks.

 

When the deal was announced, Air Sahara had a load factor of 76 per cent, riding over economical fares and convenient connections in certain sectors.

 

Air Sahara’s booking offices at airports and in cities revealed that the airline had near full occupancy in key metro sectors like Delhi-Mumbai and low-fare tickets in these sectors had been sold for the next few days.

 

Airline executives said it was business as usual with the airline and there was no fall in walk-in passengers and bookings.

 

Sahara executives also said the process of integrating the airline’s and Jet Airways’ frequent flyer programme had been aborted since the deal had been called off

 

Sources said the recent cost-rationalisation exercise it undertook was yielding good results and the carrier would be profitable.

 

The data available with the directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA) revealed that while Air Sahara made a net profit after tax of Rs 96 lakh during 2003-04, it recorded a net loss after tax of Rs 37.75 crore during 2002-03 and a net loss after tax of Rs 159.92 crore during 2001-02.

 

They added that the airline was likely to go ahead with its business model of flying with leased aircraft rather than owned aircraft. There are many airlines around the world following this business model very successfully, they said.



 



 

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karatecatman


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Jet Airways files civil suit against Subroto Roy in Bombay High Court
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www.ptinews.com


Jet Airways files civil suit against Subroto Roy in Bombay High Court


Mumbai, June 30 


 Jet Airways filed a case in the Bombay High Court against the Sahara Group chairman Subroto Roy on Friday for the recovery of Rs 500 crore advance paid to Air Sahara when the Rs 2,300 crore acquisition was struck.


The case was filed on the grounds that Roy had personally guaranteed refund of the advance in case the deal fell through. Jet has already filed an arbitration suit in the High Court in this matter.


Meanwhile, a district court has set July 29 as the next date of hearing for arguments in connection with the Jet Airways-Air Sahara failed merger deal.


The court also extended the interim order on freezing the escrow account opened for the purpose till the next hearing of the case.


On Wednesday, Air Sahara filed a caveat in the apex court. The caveat, filed on behalf of Sahara India Commercial Corporation, urged that nothing should be done in the matter without any


Jet Airways had described the collapse of its Rs 2,300 crore deal to acquire Air Sahara as ‘‘unfortunate’’ and blamed ‘‘vested interests’’ for making inaccurate statements.


Alleging that Jet had terminated the contract, Sahara had moved to a Lucknow Court on June 21 seeking an interim stay on operation of the escrow account and followed it up with another injunction on the sale of share pledged by it to jet for an advance of Rs 500 crore.


India’s largest aviation industry deal, worth 500 million dollars, collapsed last week with both Jet Airways and Air Sahara moving court against each other. (



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the_380


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RE: Jet and Sahara --- cat fight
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Where is S2's Chmn. he is not seen at all


I think he has gone underground or something...


Any info?



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HAWK21M


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Amazing how Things get Dirty so Fast.


Why Doesn't NG & SR meet up on live TV.


regds


MEL



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the_380


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Yeah good idea only if someone can find out where is SR


Our media associate Bhargavi do u have any chances to find out where is Subrata Roy is these days



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VABBy


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probably in bed at his lucknow home dont ask me with whom lol ......


 


 On second thoughts there was a big scare in the media he isnt doing well. But i remember him travelling in a Golf Kart with Anna Kournikova lucky B****rd



-- Edited by vabby at 19:04, 2006-07-02

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the_380


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vabby wrote:

  probably in bed at his lucknow home dont ask me with whom lol ......    On second thoughts there was a big scare in the media he isnt doing well. But i remember him travelling in a Golf Kart with Anna Kournikova lucky B****rd-- Edited by vabby at 19:04, 2006-07-02
I dont know from where u got that infoon kournikova but all i know is that he is hiding cos once he appears he will be asked to pay his loans there are lot of stories floating on this issue..

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the_380 wrote:
vabby wrote:
  probably in bed at his lucknow home dont ask me with whom lol ......    On second thoughts there was a big scare in the media he isnt doing well. But i remember him travelling in a Golf Kart with Anna Kournikova lucky B****rd-- Edited by vabby at 19:04, 2006-07-02
I dont know from where u got that infoon kournikova but all i know is that he is hiding cos once he appears he will be asked to pay his loans there are lot of stories floating on this issue..


He's been absent for a very long time now - initially he was reported as being unwell, and then there was discussion about him being down with depression.

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Nimish wrote:

 He's been absent for a very long time now - initially he was reported as being unwell, and then there was discussion about him being down with depression.

Considering the Situation.Im not surprised.Has he recovered from X syndrome.


regds


MEL



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