New Delhi: Air India has now been handed back to Tata Company today. Today is the last day of Air India being called a government airline. The transfer of Air India is complete. Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran reached Air India House for this and did the entire process of transfer. DIPAM and Civil Aviation Secretary were also present on this occasion. On this occasion, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrashekaran said that now Air India is with us, we will announce the new board soon.
How the Air India-Tata deal was cracked?
In 2018 the government decided to sell 76% stake of Air India in 2018, no one showed interest in buying after which in 2020 the government decided to sell 100% stake of Air India. In 2021, SpiceJet and Air India showed interest in buying it. The Tata group bought 100% stake in Air India in October 2021 for Rs 18,000 crore. 100% stake in Air India was sold to Tales Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Tata Group.
Under this deal, Tata has to repay Air India’s debt of more than 23 thousand crores. The rest of the loan has been transferred to the state-owned Air India Asset Holdings (AIAHL). Under this deal, Tata has not only got 100 percent stake in Air India but also Air India Express and 50 percent stake in cargo and ground handling company AISATS. Apart from this, Tata will also get the airline’s aircraft, property, housing society for employees and landing and parking slots at the airport.
Tata will get 4,400 domestic and 1,800 international landing and parking slots from Air India. Tata will also get Air India’s Airlines House in Mumbai and Delhi. The market value of the Mumbai office alone is more than Rs 1,500 crore. On 27 January 2022, the government handed over the command of Air India to Tata. After about 69 years, the command of Air India again came in the hands of Tata.
What is the history of Air India?
Air India was started as Tata Airlines in 1932 by JRD Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group. It is the oldest airline in the country. Its name was changed to Air India in 1946. In 1948, Air India made the first international flight between Mumbai and London. With this, Air India became not only India but also the first Asian airline to fly between Asia and Europe. In 1953, the government nationalized Air India and made it a government company and divided it into Indian Airlines for international flights and Air India for domestic flights. In 2007, the government merged Indian Airlines and Air India. Since then Air India started drowning in debt. By 2006-07, the combined loss of Air India and Indian Airlines was Rs 770 crore and it increased to Rs 7200 crore by March 2009, two years after the merger.
As of March 2020, Air India had a debt of more than 70 thousand crores. In 2020-21 also, it has suffered a loss of more than 7 thousand crores. In October 2022, Tata had bought 100% stake in Air India and in January 2022 he got its command.
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