Air India, SkyDrive and Suzuki Sign MoU for Feasibility Study of Medical Air Logistics in India

TOYOTA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 31, 2026--

Air India Limited (hereinafter, “Air India”), India’s leading global airline, SkyDrive Inc. (hereinafter, “SkyDrive”), a company engaged in the development, manufacture, and sales of eVTOL aircraft, and Suzuki Motor Corporation (hereinafter, “Suzuki”) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to conduct a joint feasibility study on the use of eVTOL aircraft for medical air logistics in India.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260730057859/en/

India’s major cities face severe traffic congestion, creating significant challenges for time-critical medical logistics. By combining SkyDrive’s eVTOL technology, Air India’s operational expertise and Suzuki’s India market insight, the three companies will take on the challenge of realizing last-mile emergency medical logistics, contributing to the advancement of India's medical infrastructure.

Comment by Ramesh Mamidala, Head of Cargo of Air India Limited

“India is today one of the world's largest and fastest-growing aviation markets, and we see advanced air mobility as a natural extension of the country's transport ecosystem. This collaboration with SkyDrive and Suzuki reflects our shared ambition to explore 21st century solutions to address real-world challenges while shaping the future of mobility. The potential application of eVTOL aircraft for medical air logistics is particularly compelling because it combines technology and purpose, helping to reduce critical transit times when every minute can make a difference. We are pleased to contribute to this feasibility study with our operational expertise, airport infrastructure knowledge, and stakeholder relationships to help evaluate and develop a framework for safe, reliable, and scalable eVTOL operations.”

Comment by Tomohiro Fukuzawa, Founder and CEO of SkyDrive Inc.

“Since our founding, SkyDrive has been dedicated to transforming the future of transportation through the aerial mobility revolution. We are incredibly proud to partner with Air India and Suzuki to take a step toward medical logistics—a sector where every second counts and lives can be saved. In India, where chronic congestion is a pressing issue, utilizing eVTOLs for advanced medical logistics—including the transport of high-value, time-critical medical supplies—will reshape medical infrastructure. We will work dedicatedly to contribute to saving as many lives as possible.”

Comment by Masao Fujitani, Executive General Manager, Next Generation Business Development of Suzuki Motor Corporation

“The eVTOL aircraft being developed by SkyDrive, with which Suzuki is engaged in business and technology collaboration, represents a new form of mobility that embodies Suzuki’s philosophy of ‘Sho-Sho-Kei-Tan-Bi (Smaller, Fewer, Lighter, Shorter, and Neater)’. We believe it has the potential to play a role in supporting medical infrastructure in urban areas.
Under our corporate slogan, ‘By Your Side,’ Suzuki will continue to provide diverse mobility options tailored to customers’ needs and contribute to regional development. By collaborating with a wide range of mobility companies, including SkyDrive and Air India, Suzuki aims to realize ‘infrastructure mobility closely connected with people’s lives.’”

Air India, SkyDrive and Suzuki Sign MoU for Feasibility Study of Medical Air Logistics in India

Air India, SkyDrive and Suzuki Sign MoU for Feasibility Study of Medical Air Logistics in India

Signing ceremony

Representative image rendering of medical air logistics utilizing eVTOL aircraft in India

GENEVA (AP) — European nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions to protest Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in soccer’s biggest tournament to private equity investors. The North American soccer body rejected his plan later the same day.

“UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions,” the European soccer body said after an urgent online meeting of its 55 member nations.

FIFA issued a statement early Friday saying that “nobody is selling football” and that it plans to continue the consultation process. But it appeared to back off from establishing the public equity move — what it calls the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) — if member countries do not agree.

“FIFA acknowledges and respects feedback and concern aired in public,” it said, while blaming "erroneous reporting in the media” for disruptions to its planned consultation with member associations.

But it said that without the support of FIFA's 211 member associations, “FIFA’s commercial activities would remain unchanged. FFE would not be established.”

"Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain.”

The next scheduled FIFA tournament is within weeks in Europe — the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5 — and the four British federations comprise FIFA’s only bidder to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup. That decision is due Nov. 23.

“Some things are simply too important to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”

The strategy meeting was called to counter FIFA President Infantino’s offer of $20 million to each of FIFA’s 211 global members that has to be accepted by mid-September.

Later Thursday, the 41-member Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) met and announced it rejected Infantino's plan.

In a statement, CONCACAF said members “expressed deep concerns about the lack of due process surrounding the proposal, the artificially short deadline imposed, and the absence of any review or approval by the relevant FIFA governance bodies.” It also questioned the need for outside investment "following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history.”

Infantino’s secret project was revealed Tuesday to spin off its commercial operations in the new $20 billion FFE subsidiary 20% owned by private investors. The core investor would be a New York investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Infantino wrote Tuesday to the 211 members — already the effective owners of FIFA as a non-profit association under Swiss law — that if they approve FFE their promised $10 million basic funding for the next four years will double to $20 million. He projected their FIFA funding through 2038 would be $86 million each, instead of about $36 million.

“This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,” said UEFA, where Infantino was a long-time staffer and its CEO-like general secretary when he was first elected to lead FIFA in 2016.

Infantino’s high-stakes financial gambit now could threaten his previously secure 11-year presidency of FIFA as anger and frustration with him rises among soccer stakeholders including three of the six continental bodies.

FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members scheduled next March in Rabat, Morocco.

Infantino had seemed — 11 days ago after the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey — to have a clear path to being re-elected unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031, despite a furor over letting United States forward Folarin Balogun play against Belgium despite a red card in his previous game.

Soccer officials have said privately Infantino has eyed a lucrative commissioner-like role at the FFE spinoff beyond 2031.

“Game over, Gianni #InfantinOUT,” the Football Supporters Europe group, which advises UEFA on fan issues such as ticket prices, posted after the boycott threat.

UEFA detailed Thursday why soccer officials fear external investors owning a stake of the global game’s biggest events, including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women.

“The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever,” UEFA said. “Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure.”

Infantino has presented the private equity offer as a chance to “turbocharge” funding development of soccer across the world, where a majority of the 211 FIFA members rely on its funding.

Officials from about 40 UEFA member spoke at the urgent meeting, with anger expressed that FIFA is not using some of its multi-billion reserves to fund extra development programs.

“As a result of today’s discussion, no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive,” the European soccer body said, “unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.”

On a seismic day in soccer politics, a traditional bedrock of support in Asia for FIFA and Infantino had earlier Thursday been shaken.

“FIFA’s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football,” the Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa said in a letter to its 46 members of FIFA, warning of risks to their own competitions.

Sheikh Salman, an ally to Infantino since losing the FIFA presidential election to him in 2016, wrote “such an initiative will not succeed without the support of all the confederations, which is not the case now.”

In a video message published Wednesday by FIFA, Infantino insisted spinning off its money-making operations was “an offer, not an obligation.”

A FIFA presentation for its members, co-written with its banking advisors from J.P. Morgan and seen by the AP, set a goal for FFE as “commercial rigor and expertise to better capitalize on broadcast rights, sponsorships and a growing tournament portfolio.”

That growing portfolio likely would include adding more teams to FIFA competitions like the World Cup and Club World Cup for men and women, and potentially staging them more often than every four years, including in the U.S.

FIFA adding teams, games and competitions would squeeze the value, status and space in the congested global fixture calendar for those that fund and are organized by the six continental soccer bodies like UEFA and the AFC. Those include World Cup qualifying games, continental tournaments and Champions Leagues.

“It is important that the AFC family has a complete understanding,” Sheikh Salman wrote, “of how such an initiative may affect key areas of global and Asian football, including the sustainability of confederation and (domestic) competitions, as well as the organization and commercial landscape surrounding the AFC’s activities.”

A threatened World Cup boycott from Europe helped derail Infantino’s plan in 2021 to play World Cups every two years instead of four.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

FILE - FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, talks to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin during the FIFA 75th Congress at the Conmebol Convention Center in Luque, Paraguay, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Calistro, File)

FILE - Asia Football Confederation President Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, center, walks with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, as they arrive for an inauguration ceremony for the new building of the Asia Football Confederation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)