INDIGO, QATAR AIRWAYS TO ANNOUNCE DEAL

NEW DELHI: India’s largest airline, Indigo , and Qatar Airways will make a strategic business announcement on Thursday, which media reports said would involve a codeshare agreement. Indigo shares, which rose as much as 5% early in the day, pared those gains to trade up 1% in the afternoon. Qatar has in the past shown interest in investing in Indigo but the Indian airline has resisted.

“We are very interested in Indigo ... We are talking to Indigo of doing codeshare, joint flights but not yet an equity stake in the airline,” Qatar Airways chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, told Reuters in an interview in August. The airline’s chief executive, Ronojoy Dutta, and al Baker would “talk about the vision and future for both the airlines”, they said in the statement.