Tata Group may bid for Air India

INDIA'S debt-ridden national carrier may get a big relief if the country’s Tata Group moves ahead with its plans to bid for the airline.

The chairman of the Indian conglomerate N Chandrasekaran is not ruling out bidding for the airline, according to a report published in the Indian daily The Times Of India.

"I will ask the team to evaluate it," he told the newspaper about his plans for the group in the course of an interview for his recently-released book Bridgital Nation.

"Ideally it should be a Vistara decision, not a Tata Sons decision," he added.

"I'm not going to run a third airline (in addition to Vistara and AirAsia). Unless we merge, there are issues. I will never say yes or no. I don't know."

The Indian government has recently indicated its willingness to exit Air India completely.

Chandrasekaran noted: "We will have to find a solution for our aviation business. I want to scale it up, but I also know that the business is likely to make losses until 2025”.

Air India has a debt pile of over Rs 580 billion (£6.35bn), besides huge losses.

Interestingly, the airline was founded by Indian entrepreneur JRD Tata as Tata Airlines in 1932.

Later in the post independence period, it became a public limited firm and was renamed Air India.

Meanwhile, Indian minister for civil aviation Hardeep Singh Puri has said that the privatisation process for Air India is in full swing, and it is likely to be completed soon.

The national carrier's sale is in the interest of the wider Indian aviation sector, the minister added on the sidelines of his visit to the University of Birmingham to deliver an India Institute Annual Lecture on the Teachings of Guru Nanak on Friday (1).

"I expect that the privatisation process of Air India, the flag carrier, which is now in full swing, to be completed in the coming months," Puri noted.

The Tata conglomerate has already two joint ventures, including a full-service airline with Singapore Airlines (SIA) to operate Vistara and a second with budget carrier AirAsia.

Air India is expected to support Vistara to grow globally.

Currently, Vistara flies to just four international destinations.

Air India will also increase Vistara's domestic market share, which presently stands at six per cent, with its 12 per cent presence.