Jet Airways, Air France-KLM, Delta consortium to bid for Air India

A consortium of Jet Airways Air FranceKLM and Delta Airlines understood to have expressed interest in the disinvestment of national carrier Air India according to sources Moving ahead with the strategic disinvestment of lossmaking Air India the government is expected to soon invite Expression of Interest EoI from the bidders Against this backdrop sources said a consortium of three full services including Jet Airways are keen to put in their bid for the national carrier Jet Airways along with Air FranceKLM and Delta Air Lines are interested in participating in Air India disinvestment sources told PTI When contacted a Jet Airways spokesperson said the airline would not like to comment on speculationsQueries sent to Air FranceKLM and Delta remained unanswered Jet Airways possible bid for Air India by way of a consortium also comes less than four months after the Naresh Goyalled airline enhanced cooperation agreement with the Air FranceKLM Group Interestingly Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube had a decadelong career at Delta Air Lines before joining the Indian carrier last year Immediately before coming to Jet Airways he was Senior Vice President Asia Pacific at the American airline Air FranceKLM and its partners Delta and Alitalia operate the largest TransAtlantic jointventure with over 270 daily flights Though Air India is saddled with huge debt acquiring the airline can help boost the acquirer in terms of foot print and bilateral rights While a group of ministers are still in the process of finalising the contours of Air India stake sale the civil aviation ministry has so far said that officially it has received expression of interest from at least nofrills carrier IndiGo and an unidentified foreign airlineThe enhanced partnership between Jet Airways and Air FranceKLM Group announced in November would help in boosting connectivity between 106 European cities and 44 domestic destinations At that time Naresh Goyal had said he would speak to the group chairmen of Air FranceKLM and Delta to explore the possibility of deepening this cooperation through joint purchase of fuel and closer tieups in engineering and maintenance all of which would be revenue accretive The government expects to complete the privatisation of Air India this year and is likely to put up for sale as four different entities Last month Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha had said he had many discussions with many different players for Air India as well as various different entities that belong to the Air India group Air India its lowcost arm Air India Express and subsidiary AISATS are likely to be offered as one entity while regional arm Alliance Air would be a separate entityBesides Air India Air Transport Services Ltd AIATSL and Air India Engineering Services Ltd AIESL will be sold separately AISATS is a 5050 joint venture between Air India and Singapore Airlines group entity SATS Ltd Last year aviation services provider Bird Group had expressed interest in acquiring Air Indias ground handling subsidiary AIATSL On March 6 the Civil aviation ministry had said Air India has been showing considerable improvement in operational and financial parameters In June 2017 the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs CCEA gave its inprinciple nod to the strategic disinvestment of the airline which has a debt burden of over Rs 50000 croreSubsequent to the decision the Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism AISAM headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was set up to decide on specific issues The national carrier is staying on taxpayers money under the turnaround plan approved by the previous UPA government in 2012 Under the plan the airline is to get Rs 30231 crore up to 2021 subject to achieving certain milestones So far the government has infused Rs 2654521 crore into the carrierCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever