There is more to the civil aviation sector that just the policy. Since, as we said, it was a `happening' sector, almost every second day speculative reports take off about some airline picking up stake in another. After the sudden revival of the aborted Jet-Sahara deal and the Kingfisher-Air Deccan tie-up happening after much public denial, correspondents can ill-afford to ignore any whispers about M&As in this sector. This week, it was the turn of Paramount apparently taking a slice of Spice Jet. The speculation ran throughout the day till Spice came out with an elaborate explanation as to why it was not interested in selling. The media, however, have taken these explanations with more than a pinch of salt, given the recent trend in this sector. What was interesting, however, was an SMS that many correspondents — including those not covering the sector — received saying that a particular private airline was not selling its stake. Nobody in the first place had suggested that this airline was on the block, then why the denial?

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