In an exclusive conversation with Business Today, Civil Aviation minister Suresh Prabhu said, \"Air India disinvestment has not been handled at the ministry so far. We will definitely be interested in making sure that Air India remains in Indian hands only. Not more than 49 per cent will go to foreigners.\"

On March 12, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation ordered grounding of 11 A320neo planes fitted with P&W 1100 engines citing safety concerns

The problem is that the government expects the bidder to pay for both the good and the bad. And also take over a huge debt burden. For domestic airlines like SpiceJet, Vistara or Go Air, only the slots are valuable and some parts of the fleet. Guaranteeing the airline staff jobs for a full year is probably not something any bidder is looking forward to. 

Asserting that there will be \"zero tolerance\" on air safety issues, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu has said the aircraft with engine problems will remain grounded till the issues are addressed.

P&W Whitney will provide spare engines to all of IndiGo's grounded planes within 40 days.

IndiGo has cancelled close to 500 flights this month due to the P&W problem. On Sunday, the plane on the Bengaluru-New Delhi morning flight was understood to have been grounded after metal chip particles were detected in the jet's engine oil.

A whopping 102 IndiGo flights have been shifted out, including flights connecting the capital to smaller cities like Bagdogra, Visakhapatnam, Udaipur, Vadodara and Srinagar. Basically, IndiGo has prefixed '2' to all flights that have been shifted out to make it easier for passengers.

Starting today till March 22, 36 IndiGo flights will remain cancelled, and 18 flights between March 22 and 24. Meanwhile, GoAir has cancelled 8 flights during March 15-20 and 10 flights between March 16 and March 24.

On Tuesday, the airline had to cancel 47 flights, or about 5 per cent of its total flights per day, causing inconvenience to passengers. P&W has not given a timeline to resolve the engine issues.

After DGCA grounded 11 A320neo aircraft due to faulty engines, 8 operated by IndiGo and 3 by GoAir, today IndiGo and GoAir cancelled as many as 65 domestic flights. Jayant Sinha in a statement said that no aircraft with engine trouble will take off till the issue is resolved.

Launched in December 2010, Airbus A320neo is one of the fastest-selling aircraft in history. With a pending order book of 6,005 from 98 customers, the aircraft has overtaken its closest competitor in the narrow-body segment - Boeing 737 Max - which was launched a few months later.

The aviation sector in the country may remain affected with IndiGo and GoAir likely to face more disruptions in the coming weeks.

In what could be a huge cause of concern for budget carriers IndiGo and Go Air, aviation regulator DGCA on Monday grounded 11 A320 neo aircraft powered by a certain series of Pratt & Whitney engines following instances of engine failures during flights. Of these, 8 are operated by IndiGo and 3 by GoAir.