India’s government is moving towards privatising the country’s beleaguered national airline, which has floundered amid stiff competition from no-frills rivals and reported at least seven years of losses. Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday that the civil aviation ministry had been asked to prepare a plan for the government to sell off Air India, which has been reliant on a US$6.5b bailout since 2012. The National Institution for Transforming India, or Niti Aayog, an influential government policy advisory group chaired by prime minister Nirendra Modi, “has given its recommendations to the civil aviation ministry which will decide on the process of disinvestment in Air India," said Mr Jaitley who has long pushed for the airline’s sale. The Niti Aayog consults with the government on long-term policy. While its recommendation is not binding, the move will trigger a debate about the future of Air India. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the civil aviation minister, has also called for Air India to be sold. However, on Wednesday he said that the country might have trouble drumming up interest in the indebted airline. “There are hardly any bakras [investors] around so to get one is difficult. “One thing is for sure, the taxpayer’s money cannot be committed for eternity.” Neelam Matthews, an aviation analyst, said Air India would struggle to find investors able to fund its debt. “Even if it happens, the government will have to give relief to Air India — their debt is so high no one is going to invest that much unless they have really deep pockets.”<br/>
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Lufthansa is considering stretching out deliveries of Boeing’s new 777X aircraft, concerned about the cost and size of the big jet as managers review the airline’s fleet needs. A decision on the new timeline is “urgent” and could be reached by September, according to an internal video presentation by Lufthansa Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr. The German airline may take additional Airbus SE A350 planes, which carry fewer passengers than the 400-seat Boeing jet. “I’m not sure if we’ve really ordered enough A350s and possibly too many 777Xs,” Spohr said at a staff meeting. “We must now think about either stretching the 777X in a deal with Boeing to let them come in more slowly, or increasing profitability to finance our overdue fleet investments.” The move would be a blow to Boeing, which signed up Lufthansa as a launch customer for the 777X. The company has a backlog for the model worth about $125b at list prices, with orders concentrated among airlines that have hit market turbulence recently. <br/>
United says it will start flying between Los Angeles and Singapore, a distance of about 8,700 miles, making it the longest route to or from the US. Westbound flights will be a derriere-numbing 17 hours and 55 minutes. They will leave Los Angeles each evening and arrive two days later local time in Singapore. The eastbound leg will take 15 hours and 15 minutes with the prevailing tail wind. The airline said Thursday that assuming it gets government approval, flights will start Oct. 27 using Boeing 787 planes. The longest current US flight is Qantas' 8,578-mile trip between Dallas-Fort Worth and Sydney, Australia. Among flights that don't touch the US, Qatar Airways flies a 9,032-mile route between its hub in Doha and Auckland, New Zealand.<br/>