Saturday, 1 July 2017
New Delhi – Air India has 14% share in the domestic market where cutthroat competition from private airlines like Indigo and Spicejet is hurting its profitability. At the same time, Air India is witnessing growth at about 17 % a year on international routes.
The group of ministers will recommend how to treat the unsustainable debt, the hive-off of certain assets to a shell company, the quantum of disinvestment and about bidders.
Air India was founded by industrialist J.R.D. Tata in 1932 as Tata Airlines and was later nationalized in 1953. It has a golden past and was the first airline in the world to have an entire fleet of jets. The Indian government has been using the airlines to rescue Indians stranded in conflict zones abroad, airlifting around 170,000 people out of Kuwait in 1990 and rescuing citizens of 23 countries from Yemen in 2015.
The Indian government has made several attempts to sell its stake in Air India. In 2001, when the Atal Behari Vajpayee government was ready to sell it to Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, Singapore Airlines backed out at the last minute.
Source by: Internet
