IndiGo has expressed unsolicited interest in buying a stake in Air India, the junior aviation minister said Thursday, a day after the cabinet approved plans to privatise the carrier. Several other airlines, domestic and international, have also expressed an interest in buying part of Air India, Jayant Sinha said. He did not name any of the other airlines. "They (IndiGo) have expressed an interest in the strategic divestment process," he said. "The process has just begun ... it's a very introductory interest." IndiGo owner InterGlobe Aviation confirmed an interest in buying the international operations of Air India and Air India Express to India's ministry of civil aviation. "Alternatively, we are equally interested in acquiring all of the airline operations of Air India and Air India Express," InterGlobe president Aditya Ghosh said. <br/>
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Air India has warned its former employees with severe consequences such as withdrawal of post-retirement benefits if they speak out against the airline on social media. The Cabinet has given an in-principle approval for the disinvestment of debt-laden Air India. Its employees, including those retired, are staring at an uncertain future. As many as seven unions have written to the govt threatening mass protests if the airline is privatised. "It is unacceptable that a person who is availing post-retirement facilities like passage, medical, etc. from Air India talks against the company. Retired personnel who make such negative comments with the intention of tarnishing the image of the company will themselves be responsible for cessation of their post-retirement facilities," according to an internal order by the airline. <br/>
United Airlines announced that it is making changes to frequent-flier awards offered through its MileagePlus loyalty program. The airline will now move to a "dynamic pricing model" where the number of miles needed for an award ticket will vary from flight to flight. The change will take effect for award tickets booked for travel Nov 1 and beyond. United says those new “Every Day Awards” that fluctuate in price will replace its “Standard Awards,” currently its highest-mileage option for award tickets. United’s low-level “Saver” awards will remain. The airline says it will increase the availability of those award types by more than 10% throughout US and Canadian markets. With the changes, United customers will no longer have just 2 levels (“Saver” and “Standard”) when booking award tickets. <br/>
United Airlines has encountered some significant lounge issues at Chicago O'Hare International. Just 7 months after the heavily-promoted launch of United's first Polaris international business class lounge at O'Hare, the carrier has discovered the space devoted to the lounge in Concourse C of Terminal 1 at O'Hare is proving too small to adequately handle the crush of Polaris-ticketed passengers seeking to use the lounge during peak international flight departure times in the early morning and late afternoon. Most of the space now devoted to the Polaris lounge at O'Hare previously was a lounge for the exclusive use of United's first-class passengers. But first class is slowly being eliminated from United's international operations as Polaris rolls out and becomes the predominant premium cabin offering for United passengers. <br/>