“As and when it happens, we would be happy to look at it,” he said. AI was in fact formed as a division of Tata Sons Ltd and was being run as Tata Airlines till 1946, after which it became a public limited company.
Tata’s comments come shortly after Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said he personally felt AI should be privatised. “We (the current government) are not thinking of privatising Air India. But the government does not need to be in services sectors like hotels or airlines. The consumer cares about the AI brand and not about who owns it,” he’d said. The airline is unlikely to get more funds after the equity infusion of Rs 30,000 crore by the government till 2020-21, Singh had held.
Tata and Singapore Airlines’ chief executive officer, Goh Choon Phong, met Singh on Friday, a day after the Foreign Investment Promotion Board cleared a proposal by Tata and Singapore Airlines to jointly start and operate a full service airline in the country. After the 45-minute meeting with the minister, the partners said they were hopeful of launching operations by May-June 2014. “We are looking at very fast clearances,” said Prasad Menon, chairman, Tata SIA Airlines Ltd.
Singh said he did not see any problem in the airline’s early commencing of operations. “The DGCA (the civil aerospace regulator) has to be satisfied,” he said. “There are issues related to fleet, parking space, airport slots, routes. It depends on how fast they are able to provide the data.”
The Tata-SIA initial investment would be $100 million, according to the September 19 agreement between the two. The Tatas would have 51 per cent stake and SIA the rest.
Ratan Tata said he was “excited” about the FIPB approval and a lot of hard work needed to be done. Phong said the airline might operate flights with aircraft from Singapore Airlines. “We are working on a fleet plan. We will consider it (operating SIA aircraft till a new fleet is inducted). It is a possible option,” he said.
Tata also denied reports of friction between the partners in the group’s other airline venture, AirAsia India. “There is no confusion within AirAsia India…I am not aware of any such thing,” he said. Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace, who holds 21 per cent stake in AirAsia India, had reportedly called the Tata-SIA joint venture “unethical” and that he was “shocked to hear the news”.
He had also reportedly claimed the Tata Group had not informed him about it.
Earlier on Friday, Ratan Tata and Phong met Minister for Commerce Industry Anand Sharma. The two had met Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday.
Tata SIA Airlines Ltd will be incorporated in thic city. The airline has made Delhi its operational hub because of huge capacity constraints at the Mumbai airport and better infrastructure at Delhi airport. Substantial ownership and effective control of the proposed airline will be with Tatas, the two companies had stated in their proposal to the FIPB.
The new airlines is to have six directors, four to be nominated by Tata Sons and the other two by SIA. The chairman of the board will always remain a Tata nominee. The chairman and at least two-thirds of the directors will be Indians, to conform with government rules.
Tata SIA has said it would like to operate international flights from India. At present, Indian government rules do not allow domestic airlines less than five years in operations and with less than 20 aircraft to commence international operations. The ministry of civil aviation has been reconsidering the policy but no decision has been taken.
Would be happy to look into AI if privatised: Tata
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