Tata Group Officially Takes Over Air India On January 27
Tata group has officially taken over Air India from the government today. It happened decades after it was taken from the conglomerate. Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said, “We are delighted to have Air India back at the Tata group.”
The handover is the homecoming of Air India to Tatas after 67 years. N Chandrasekaran also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the official handover of Air India. Tata Group also met with Finance Ministry officials and Civil Aviation Ministry officials at 2:30 pm.
A consortium of lenders led by the State Bank of India (SBI) also agreed to provide loans to Tata Group for the smooth operations of the loss-making airlines.
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The term loans by SBI to Talace will help in retiring the high-cost borrowings of Air India. Talace Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Tata Group’s holding company Tata Sons, won the bid to acquire debt-ridden Air India in 2021.
Tata is paying Rupees 2,700 crore in cash and is taking over Rupees 15,300 crore of the airline’s debt. As a first step of the Air India takeover, the Tatas introduced an “enhanced meal service” in four flights operating from Mumbai.
The Air India Board is expected to resign today. Reportedly, Tata nominees may replace the government members. However, as per the agreement, Tata Group will retain all the employees of Air India at least for a year.
What do Pilots want?
Reportedly, Pilots want October 15 to declare National Aviation Day to honour JRD Tata’s first flight. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pilots said that October 15, 1932, was the day of Tata’s first flight.
On October 11 2021, the central government had issued the Letter of Intent (LoI) to the Tata Group. Earlier, the expected timeline for transfer was set for December-end. However, it got delayed due to various reasons.
