Would be very happy to look at privatisation of Air India: Tata

New Delhi: Tata Group will be interested in Air India if it is privatised, its Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata said on Friday amid reports that the government is inclined to give up control in the state carrier.

“As and when it happens, we would be very happy to look at it,” Tata said when asked whether he would be interested if Air India was privatised.

Tata was speaking to reporters after he, along with Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong and Tata-SIA Chairman Prasad Menon, met Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh.

Singh, who was standing beside Tata, didn’t said anything.

Tata’s comments came weeks after Singh said it was his personal opinion that the government should not be in service sectors like airlines or hotels and any future regime could consider privatisation of Air India, as the government would not give any more funds to the airline after it completed equity infusion of Rs 30,000 crore till 2021.

Air India was formed as a division of Tata Sons Ltd (now Tata Group). It was being run as Tata Airlines till 1946, after which it became a public limited company.

Asked about reported discontentment expressed by Arun Bhatia of Telstra Tradeplace, a promoter of AirAsia India, over the Tata Sons floating a joint venture with SIA for launching another airline, Tata said, “There is no confusion within AirAsia India… I am not aware of any such thing.”

Bhatia had reportedly called the Tata-SIA joint venture as “unethical” and said he was “shocked to hear the news”. He had also reportedly claimed that the Tata Group had not informed him about it.

PTI