Air India has asked the Indian government to make up for the cost of the year-long ban on Pakistan’s airspace by paying about $600 million in additional costs.
According to a letter the airline sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and obtained by Reuters, the New Delhi-based airline requested a “subsidy model” in proportion to the economic impact, which it estimated would lose more than $591 million (50 billion Indian rupees) annually for the duration of the ban.
After Pakistan shut its airspace to the country’s carriers in a tit-for-tat retaliation following an attack on tourists in Kashmir last week, Indian airlines are anticipating higher fuel costs and longer travel times.
“Subsidy for affected international flights is a good, reliable, and fair choice. According to the report, the letter stated that the subsidy can be eliminated as the situation improves.
“Air India’s impact is greatest as a result of airspace closure, additional fuel consumption, and additional crew,” according to the statement.
Reuters received a request from Air India to comment. The outlet requested comment, but the Civil Aviation Ministry did not.
According to a source with direct knowledge of the situation, Air India sent the letter after the government asked its executives to assess the impact of the airspace ban on Indian carriers.
After a period of government ownership, the Tata Group-owned airline is currently in the process of undergoing a multibillion-dollar turnaround, and Boeing and Airbus’ jet delivery delays are already limiting growth. It reported a net loss of $520m in fiscal 2023-2024, on sales of $4.6bn.
Air India frequently flys through Pakistan’s airspace, which has a 26.5 percent market share in India. It has a lot more long-haul routes than its domestic rival IndiGo.
According to information from Cirium Ascend, IndiGo, Air India, and Air India Express, the company’s budget division, have roughly 1,200 flights scheduled for Europe, the Middle East, and North America in April.
Three other people with knowledge of the situation said that the Indian government is considering ways to lessen the impact the closure of Pakistan’s airspace would have had.
Indian carriers met with the Civil Aviation Ministry to discuss possible solutions, including tax exemptions for flying over challenging terrain closer to China.
The Bee Gees and The Beatles are going head-to-head in a battle of the biopics, as RJ Gibb reveals a Spielberg-backed film about the Gibb brothers starts filming in September – just as Sam Mendes prepares four Beatles movies starring Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan
They were two of the biggest bands of all time and now The Bee Gees and The Beatles are fighting for supremacy in a new battle of the biopics. Leading British stars Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan announced last month they were to play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in four Sam Mendes films about The Fab Four.
But today, speaking exclusively to The Mirror, RJ Gibb, son of late Bee Gees star Robin Gibb, reveals that the eagerly awaited Paramount movie about the Gibb brothers will start shooting in September – sparking a box office skirmish between two musical megabands.
RJ Gibb claims Steven Spielberg has joined forces with Gladiator director Ridley Scott to make the movie, with the working title You Should Be Dancing. RJ, named after dad Robin John, says: “Our biopic is happening. Graham King, who wrote the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is writing our movie. Spielberg has a part of the action and Ridley Scott will be directing.
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RJ Gibb is the son of late Bee Gees star Robin Gibb(Image: COSMIC RUSH)
“Our movie, hopefully, starts filming this September. We are all very excited, as it has been a few years in the making. The Beatles versus the Bee Gees, you don’t get much bigger. Of course the Beatles sold more records… but The Bee Gees, well, they had longevity.”
Shooting in London and Miami, the biopic will chart the rags to riches rise of the Gibb brothers – Barry, Maurice and Robin.
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Born on the Isle of Man, before moving to Manchester and then emigrating to Australia, it will follow their journey to chart success in Oz and beyond – after record producer Robert Stigwood introduced them to a worldwide audience.
Global stardom followed, with the Bee Gees selling more than 220 million records and making history in 1977, when their soundtrack album to the Saturday Night Fever movie became the biggest selling album of all time, selling 40 million copies.
RJ, 42, reveals that the biopic may also include newly unearthed early recordings made by the then penniless Gibbs in 1967, when they busked in exchange for their passage aboard SS Fairsky from Australia back to the UK.
He says: “We have just found songs they recorded on board that ship. We have some amazing things we want to show the world for the first time. They were coming back to (the UK) to meet Robert Stigwood.
“My dad told me how they asked the captain if they could do a show each night to entertain the passengers in order to pay their fare.” Busking on a guitar, they would slap a suitcase for drums.
“Thankfully, my grandfather Hughie recorded the sessions where my dad and his brothers can be heard covering songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Adam Faith.
“It is audio gold as these songs have never been heard before. My dad would have been 16 at the time.”
RJ, who has just released his own single Let It Be You, says: “These new songs will be sought after, especially with the new biopic. The president of the Bee Gees fan club located them somewhere. My grandmother Barbara entrusted someone with the tapes and they have now given them back to us
RJ has followed in his father’s footsteps releasing his own single(Image: COSMIC RUSH)
“Thankfully, my grandfather recorded everything as he was always walking around with a tape recorder. He always had the latest bit of kit. The world has never heard the Bee Gees cover songs by the Stones or The Beatles before. Nobody knows they exist.”
RJ, who is being consulted over the new movie with Barry Gibb, hopes the band’s first live debut in 1957 will be included, when they were known as The Rattlesnakes, before changing their name to The Bee Gees.
Speaking from his dad’s 12th century home in Thame, Oxfordshire, he shares his hope that the movie will include their first UK performance at the Gaumont Cinema in Manchester.
He says: “That night they were meant to be lip synching, but Maurice dropped the wax recording and it smashed so they had to sing for real.”
RJ also hopes the biopic will reveal the secret behind the Bee Gees’ famous harmonies.
“They sang in toilets, as they used the tiled walls for the resonance and it helped tone their sound, “ he laughs. “My dad said they used to sing in the best toilets in Australia.”
His dad also told him how the engine noise as he flew over Germany helped him devise the rhythm to the song I Started A Joke.
“It was just like a Hoover or a fan sound ,but Dad heard the melody. It is incredible. These kind of stories need to go into the biopic,” says RJ.
Casting is underway for the new movie and RJ believes rumours that Hollywood star Bradley Cooper will play Barry Gibb are true.
“Casting is always up in the air until the last moment,” he says. “The last I heard, Bradley was in line to play uncle Barry.
The trio had numerous top hits(Image: Getty Images)
“I saw Rami Malek in the Queen biopic and he looked uncannily like my dad in the early 60s. I did put that forward for Rami to play Dad and, for a while, it was considered, but I don’t think Graham King wants to use the same actors. I am sure there is someone out there who wants to play my dad.”
Despite the Gibb brothers’ musical harmony, things could be less harmonious on the road, according to RJ. He says: “Creative brothers do row, but when it came down to it, they loved nothing more than being on the road together.
“The Bee Gees were an incredible team.” Moving to other volatile brother teams, RJ is delighted to see the Gallagher brothers reuniting as Oasis.
Back in 2021, Noel spoke highly of the Bee Gees in the documentary How Do You Mend A Broken Heart, saying: “You can’t buy that (Bee Gees) sound from a shop. When you have family members singing together it is unique. They are an important chapter in the book of music.”
In a mutual show of respect, RJ says: “I was very pleased when I heard Oasis were getting back together. I think it is wonderful.
“I have met them a few times. They are fun guys, a bit off the wall but who isn’t in this industry?. All geniuses are like that. Noel took it a bit to heart what happened (clash with Liam) but it is positive they are coming back.
“I guess when you are brothers you can speak your mind. You can say something when you are family, you can say the most terrible things but if it is your brother they will forgive you.”
Hinting that he could have new songs on the way, which he recorded with his dad, before his death from cancer and intestinal surgery complications in 2012, aged 62, RJ says: “As well as carrying a torch for my dad I am finding my own voice.
“But I do have about six or seven songs that I wrote with my dad before he passed that have never been released. There are some musical gems with him singing along with me which I can turn into a mainstream song.”
Writing up until his death, RJ says his dad even penned songs with brother Barry, who visited from his home in Miami, before he died.
“Barry and my dad were close at the end. I know they wrote together in the hospital room,” says RJ.
“They were talking just before dad was diagnosed about working together again. So who knows? Those songs could come out at some point.”
Unashamedly proud of The Bee Gees and of his dad’s legacy, RJ adds: “The Bee Gees are the soundtrack to a lot of people’s lives.
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“My dad was my best friend. We were like brothers. That is why it was so hard to lose him. But growing up with the legacy has been a blessing. I mean, what better shadow to live in.”
RJ Gibb’s new single Let It Be You is out now. The summer mix of Lose Control by RJ Gibb and DJ Kokiri is available on all platforms.
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The Boomtown Rats star announced yet another exciting project to follow the 40th anniversary of the legendary concert as it approaches.
Bob Geldof hopes his Live Aid musical will help those in need(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
Bob Geldof looked back on the legacy of Live Aid 40 years on insisting there was still more work to be done – as he launched a musical telling the remarkable story and a new album. The 73-year-old, who organised the original 1985 event alongside singer Midge Ure, reunited at Wembley Stadium today.
It was where it all started, when icons like David Bowie, Queen with Freddie Mercury and Elton John took to the stage to raise funds for the famine in Ethiopia. Bob says the charity still has so much work to do, as he announced the Just for One Day – The Live Aid Musical album. “We wake up every day with 10 or 12 emails dictating the latest horror from the hungry lands,” he said.
READ MORE: Bob Geldof insists Queen had nothing to do with the success of Live Aid
Sir Bob Geldof and Midge Ure at the launch event for the Live Aid musical, Just For One Day(Image: PA)
“We couldn’t possibly know that 40 years down the track that the issue would be as vital. The world and it’s emotional bandwidth with Gaza and Ukraine and Trump and all that evil and accept that in Sudan 2.5m are being forced to starve as an instrument of war because America has decided not to send any grain, then 5 million people in Africa are in peril of their lives from AIDS because Trump has decided that’s not fun anymore.”
The Boomtown Rats star told Radio 1 host Jo Whiley, “Wembley doesn’t look any different, looking around Wembley Stadium.” Although it appeared shiny and new, it still looks awful.
Freddie Mercury and Queen bandmate on stage at Live Aid Wembley in 1985(Image: FG/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images)
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He said he wasn’t entirely convinced of the idea at first but was blown away by the performance when he spoke at the launch of the musical Just For One Day, which tells the story of the Live Aid concerts taking place in the US’s national football stadium in London and Philadelphia. He admitted, “I was mortified as I read the script.” You’re reading a version of yourself, I tell you.
Midge agreed, “I went to see the Old Vic show.” I entered as a jaded, obedient old rock star anticipating cheese.
However, both men described how impressed they were by what they saw. The musical is remarkable, according to Bob. Its political relevance is what makes it unique, in my opinion. People used to understand, but now it’s about Freddie and everything else. The musical offers a contemporary perspective on the subject.
“When you hear (The Who’s) My Generation sung like that. I took Pete Townshend to see the show. He couldn’t imagine his song, which is beyond at anthem… He clutched my knee and I knew he was thinking ‘Should I record it like that?’”
The late David Bowie at Live Aid(Image: Getty Images)
Midge added: “One song in particular jumped out for me. Bob Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind. The interpretation was phenomenal and it changed my option of what musicals and theatres could be. Fred and Ginger was all I could conjure up. The passion they have equals the passion of the artists on the day. This is a different way of getting the message out, which is incredibly important.”
The Old Vic hosted the musical’s premiere last year. It has so far raised £600,000 for the Band Aid Charitable Trust, and it is anticipated to have raised more than £1 million by the year’s end.
The musical “presents” the idea of what people could do together in a different generation,” Bob said. It’s another jukebox musical, I read somewhere. It’s true, dude! That is the name of it. It was repeatedly hit. The result is to bring that sense from 40 years ago to life and relevance. And that is what it accomplishes.
On May 15, the Band Aid Charitable Trust will receive 10% of the proceeds from Just For One Day’s return to London’s Shaftesbury Theatre. The album will be released on July 11 in preparation for Live Aid’s 40th anniversary on July 13.
To be or not to be is one of William Shakespeare’s most existential questions. A group of internationally acclaimed Peruvian actors with Down syndrome are now confronting it head-on, breaking down prejudice and barriers.
The eight-person band that performed “Hamlet” last week at London’s Barbican Center includes Cristina Leon, Jaime Cruz, and Manuel Garcia.
Leon, 32, told AFP: “This play shows that there are no boundaries, that people can do many things, and that people must accept the fact that we can do anything they ask of us.”
Seven years ago, Cruz’s acting career was born out of his dreams.
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Never had he considered having Down syndrome to be a life obstacle while working as an usher at Lima’s Teatro La Plaza.
“I’ve always wanted to be an actor,” I said. The 30-year-old said, “At an event (at the Lima theater), I had to introduce myself and said I was an actor.
He continued, “Praeces, myths, and barriers” were his goal.
Chela de Ferrari, the artistic director of the theater, adapted the masterpiece for the eight actors and brought it to the Shakespearean land.
She told AFP, “I really needed to have a more in-depth discussion with him,” and he really caught my attention.
When we were talking in a cafe, I saw him wearing the prince’s crown and thought about the significance of Jaime’s translation of Hamlet’s famous phrase “to be or not to be”
Form of Resistance
Seven additional actors were chosen for the group after a casting session was held.
“Jaime forced me to confront my own prejudices and profound ignorance of reality.” De Ferrari said, “I believe what the general public has to say about me” is exactly how it happened.
The group has traveled extensively around the world since being invited to come to Spain three years ago.
The Edinburgh International Festival sold out of the show last year, with The Guardian calling the cast’s portrayal of the Danish prince’s tragedy “upbeat” and praising it for “oozes charm, humour, and imagination.”
De Ferrari said, “I don’t think it’s the only play that actors with Down syndrome have seen,” but I don’t believe other groups have traveled as much.
The group of five men and three women will perform in Brighton, southern England, as well as in 35 other cities and towns, including Seoul, Melbourne, Toronto in Canada, and New York and Chicago in the United States this year.
For local non-Spanish speaking audiences, they perform in Spanish with subtitles in other languages.
Everyone in today’s society places limits on themselves. They constantly tell us that we can’t do things, Garcia, 32, said.
It’s a good time to present these projects given what we are seeing around the world, attacks on certain values like diversity. De Ferrari continued, “It also serves as a form of resistance.”
We embrace diversity, she said proudly, “instead of rejecting people who have speech problems or stutter.”
Due to tariffs imposed by the United States, which have increased prices, Ryanair threatened to cancel hundreds of Boeing aircraft orders. The budget airline is considering using alternative suppliers, including Chinese manufacturer COMAC.
The story was first published on Thursday by Reuters.
At a list price of more than $30 billion, the airline had ordered 330 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
In a letter to an undisclosed senior US lawmaker, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary wrote, “We would definitely reassess both our current Boeing orders and the possibility of placing those orders elsewhere, if the US government proceeds with its ill-judged plan to impose tariffs,” according to Reuters.
If Trump doesn’t remove the sector from his tariff plans, the threat from Europe’s largest low-cost carrier, one of Boeing’s biggest customers, was the most recent indication of a potential reorganization of the world aerospace industry.
The letter, which was seen by Reuters, was a response to an obverse warning from Illinois-based Democrat from Illinois, Raja Krishnamoorthi, about the security ramifications of Ryanair’s earlier suggestion that it might take a COMAC order into account.
However, according to an industry source, Ryanair may find it difficult to follow through on its threat because COMAC is not yet certified in Europe and Airbus’s main rival Airbus has declared it will be sold out for the rest of the decade.
escalating tensions
O’Leary’s letter is an extension of a previous threat from April, in which he claimed the airline would halt deliveries.
He claimed in March that Boeing executives had been confident that Trump’s tariffs would be lifted for commercial aircraft.
Since the sector has long relied on tariffs, according to sources in the aviation sector, Boeing and Airbus contracts have never included any such provisions in their contracts. Tariffs only become due once the contract has been completed and the aircraft’s ownership has passed to the new airline.
According to the sources, the majority of contracts for aircraft purchases have a clause requiring both parties to pay their own taxes without making any specific mention of tariffs. However, many aerospace companies are reportedly reviewing the language of future agreements on the assumption that trade turbulence will persist.
O’Leary’s statements in the letter may serve as a tactical tip in the middle of a potentially contentious negotiation process with Boeing, according to sources within the sector.
COMAC increases exponentially
O’Leary stated in the letter that although the Irish airline hasn’t discussed aircraft purchases with COMAC since about 2011, it would “of course” take into account if they were 10 to 20% less expensive than Airbus’s main rival.
Airbus has stated on numerous occasions that it is sold out over the course of the decade, making it Boeing’s only viable option for large single-aisle aircraft that are currently certified in Europe.
A COMAC plane has not been purchased by any Western airline. The Chinese company has applied for US certification for its C919 jet in Europe.
The C919 jet is smaller than the MAX 10 and the Boeing planes Ryanair currently flies, which can accommodate up to 230 passengers, and has about 150 seats, or up to 190 in dense layouts.
Boeing is looking to resell potentially dozens of Chinese aircraft that were barred from the country after returning a third jet to the US in a delivery standoff that prompted Trump to express his concern about Beijing.
Due to the small number of suppliers and the possibility of returning to the back of the capacity queue, according to analysts, it is unusual for airlines to cancel aeroplane contracts rather than delay delivery.
Iga Swiatek, who has previously triumphed at the French Open, defeated Coco Gauff 6-1 6-1 to reach the final of the Madrid Open.
Gauff, 21, was the only one to defeat the world number two in just 64 minutes on clay despite having never previously defeated her Polish foe.
In the final, American Gauff will face Elina Svitolina or Aryna Sabalenka, both of whom are world champions.
Gauff had no choice but to challenge reigning champion Swiatek after winning nine straight matches in Madrid, with 15 of her 16 coming back from a loss to Sabalenka in the 2023 final.
Gauff, who won the US Open in 2023, put together a strong performance that included seven ace scores and 19 of her 21 points.
I played with margin and was aggressive. In her on-court interview, Gauff speculated that it wasn’t at her best.
The American, who defeated Dayana Yastremska in three sets in her opening match last week, continued, “I felt great out here on the court today, much different from my first match here in the first round.”
“I don’t believe I have won against her yet because of the previous times we played on clay.”
