India’s billionaires are more likely to spend on private jets in the next five years, says a survey. A poll of 160 advisers at a private bank within global financial firm Citigroup Inc., which represents 5,000 clients whose wealth averages more than $100 million each, found super rich Indians are most interested in buying jets and yachts. Ninety-three percent of the respondents saw an increase in spending among the super rich on private jets, according to the 2011 “Wealth Report” compiled by Citi and luxury property firm Knight Frank.
Indian discount carrier SpiceJet has announced plans to expand its regional coverage and make a foray into two-tier and three-tier domestic destinations ahead of tapping the international market. The country’s second-largest low-fare carrier will add five new turboprop aircraft by August to enhance its regional connectivity in the country, an airline spokeswoman told Aviation Week. She says the company is preparing to fly across 100 domestic destinations and transform its aircraft to suit the infrastructure of smaller towns and cities.
NEW DELHI — After years of hesitancy, India is likely to take up with the newly elected Myanmar government the issue of increasing incidents of poachers sneaking in from the Southeast Asian country. “Poachers from Myanmar have set up hideouts in India’s remote Andaman and Nicobar islands and are increasingly preying on the fragile marine ecology,” says a senior naval officer of the archipelago.