Jet Airways (9W, Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International (BOM)) is reportedly set to place an order with Boeing (BOE, Chicago O'Hare International (ORD)) for fifty Boeing 737 MAX aircraft along with "eight to ten" B777-300(ER)s using USD220million in capital it received from Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International (AUH))'s 24% stake acquisition. The order, which is to be announced at the Paris Air Show in June, will form the backbone of the Indian carrier's domestic expansion plans with over 50 Airbus Industrie (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac (TLS)) A320neos set to be acquired for Jet's LCC wing, Jet Konnect (S2, Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International (BOM)). Part of Jet's revised strategy will involve funnelling passengers from 23 Indian cities through Abu Dhabi International (AUH) which will act as the airline's hub for flights to Europe, The Americas and beyond.

GoAir (G8, Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International (BOM)) has allegedly caught the eye of Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International (FRA)), Emirates (EK, Dubai International (DXB)) and Qatar Airways (QR, Doha International (DOH)) as stakes in Indian airlines are fast becoming a hot commodity among international carriers. According to India’s Economic Times, the Mumbai-based airline "is in talks with German carrier Lufthansa and Dubai-based Emirates and Qatar Airways, among others." Go Air had appointed Wall Street investment firm, JP Morgan, to find it fresh investment capital following a change in foreign direct investment (FDI) laws that now permit foreign carriers to hold up to 49 percent equity in Indian airlines. The announcement comes shortly after Qatar Airways boss, Akbar Al Baker, talked about a codeshare deal with IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi Indira Gandhi International (DEL)) but said that his airline "had not the money to go around buying shares" in airlines. The revised investment laws coupled with a more flexible Bilateral air services agreement between the UAE and India, have given the capital-rich Emirati carriers fresh impetus to establish a firm foothold in the subcontinent through share-acquisitions with Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International (AUH)) having recently bought a 24% stake in Jet Airways (9W, Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International (BOM)).

Qatar Airways (QR, Doha International (DOH)) in is talks with Indian budget carrier, IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi Indira Gandhi International (DEL)), over a possible a codesharing agreement, CEO Akbar Al Baker has said, but denied the Gulf carrier is interesting in buying a stake in any Indian carriers, amongst them, Spicejet (SG, Delhi Indira Gandhi International (DEL)). Mr Al Baker said the rumours of any buyout were unfounded claiming "he doesn't have so much money to buy stakes in them." Regional rival, Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International (AUH)), recently signed a deal with Jet Airways (9W, Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International (BOM)) which saw the Abu Dhabi-based carrier taking a 24% stake in the airline. A drastically liberalized bilateral air services agreement signed between India and the UAE will also put added pressure on the Qatari carrier, who are also rumoured to have sounded out the International Airline Group, IAG, regarding the purchase of a 12% stake currently held by Spanish bank, Bankia.

Jet Airways (9W, Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International (BOM)) is set for a shareholder reshuffle after Tailwinds, the airline's founder group, moves to sell a majority of its 80% shareholding in Jet to the airline's owner, Naresh Goyal and other funds and investors (who collectively own 20%), in order to comply with Indian regulations that require companies to have a minimum 25% percent public shareholding. With the sell off, Goyal will now own 51% of Jet after Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International (AUH)) last week agreed to acquire a 24% stake. At the stock's current market value, the additional 5% stake, or roughly 11.1 million shares, is estimated to be worth USD125million (INR6.8 billion rupees). While the airline has not yet set a time frame for the sell-off of additional shares to the public, the market regulator has set a deadline of June 30 for compliance to the shareholding requirement.

Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International (AUH)) has a "right of first refusal" clause in its recently signed USD379 million deal to acquire a 24% stake in Jet Airways (9W, Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International (BOM)). The clause gives the Abu Dhabi-based airline an opportunity to increase its stake in the Indian carrier if Jet's owners decide to sell off further stakes in future. Terms of the deal include Etihad making a USD150million equity investment in Jet's frequent flyer programme and spending USD70million to buy Jet's three pairs of London Heathrow (LHR) slots through a sale-and-leaseback agreement as announced in late February. Meanwhile, as a direct result of the deal, Abu Dhabi and India have signed a radically liberalized new Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) which will now see a gradual 3-step increase in capacity from the current 13'000 seats per week to over 50'000 by 2015. Regarding possible 5th freedom rights beyond Abu Dhabi International (AUH), Jet has revealed that "it is interested in operating new flights to Najaf Al-Ashraf International (NJF), Cairo International (CAI), Beirut Rafic Hariri International (BEY) and Amman Queen Alia International (AMM) via Abu-Dhabi in the future using its B737-800s and B737-900s."