Turkish Airlines is considering options to fund its planned move to Istanbul’s new airport, due to open at the end of next year, people with knowledge of the matter said. Options under consideration include having the new airport’s consortium of builders, known as IGA, construct and own the facilities and lease them to the airline, three people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. The national carrier, currently based at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Turkey’s biggest, held talks with local and international commercial banks as well as export credit agencies to borrow around $850m to finance the move, but may lack sufficient collateral to do so, two of the people said. Turkish Airlines, formally known as Turk Hava Yollari AO, doesn’t have enough collateral for a loan of that size because most of its assets are planes already pledged as collateral when they were acquired, two of the people said. Allowing IGA to build the facilities and later lease them on a long-term contract appears to be a feasible option, they said. The company is also considering tapping capital markets with a debt sale, they said. The new campus would comprise the carrier’s head office, hangars, ground-handling and other facilities at an $11b new airport being constructed by a group of local companies. <br/>
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India's Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) will probe the controversial merger of Air India and Indian Airlines, besides alleged irregularities in purchase and lease of aircraft by the two state-run carriers under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which caused "huge" losses to the exchequer. The investigative agency Monday registered three FIRs and a preliminary enquiry (PE) to go into the controversial decisions made by the erstwhile Manmohan Singh government with regard to the two national carriers, including surrender of profitable routes to favour private airlines. The cases have been registered against unidentified officials of Air India, Ministry of Civil Aviation and others under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption, CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said. "The cases relate to decisions taken by the the ministry during the tenure of the UPA which caused losses of tens of thousands of crore of rupees to the exchequer," he said. "The allegations relate to purchase of 111 aircraft for national airlines costing about Rs 70,000 crore to benefit foreign aircraft manufacturers. Such a purchase caused an alleged financial loss to the already stressed national carriers," Gaur said about the first FIR. Story has further details.<br/>