The govt plans to wrap up the disinvestment in Air India before end of the year and the preference is veering towards a “domestic buyer" for the debt-laden airline. The Union Cabinet gave an in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment in Air India in June and a panel of ministers headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley is now devising the strategy for executing the sale. “We will complete the process before the year-end. There is no choice but to privatise it,“ a govt source said. While no final decision has been taken, the source said the preference so far is for a “domestic buyer.“ Some foreign companies including airlines have informally expressed interest in buying Air India. Experts say it would be a difficult task to undertake a stake sale in the airline in the run up to 2019 general elections. <br/>
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Federal officials have issued new rules for night-time landings and control-tower staffing at San Francisco International after an Air Canada jet nearly struck planes on the ground last month. The new procedures will apply when a runway parallel to a plane's designated runway is closed, as it was July 7, possibly contributing to the Air Canada pilots' confusion. When an adjacent runway is shut down at night, air traffic controllers will no longer let pilots make so-called visual approaches to land. Instead, they must use instrument landing systems or satellite-based systems to line up for the correct runway. The FAA said Thursday that the agency also will require 2 controllers in the airport tower during busy late-night periods. Only 1 controller was working during the Air Canada incident. <br/>