Maharaja's Homecoming: Air India Officially Handed Over To Tata Group After Six Decades

The management control of the national carrier Air India has officially been handed over to Tata Sons.

Tata Group had won the bid to acquire the struggling national carrier on October 8 last year.

Talace Private Limited -- a subsidiary of the Tata group's holding company -- had placed a bid of Rs 18,000 crore for Air India.

BCCL

With all the formalities completed, the official handover of Air India happened in Delhi on Thursday.

The formalities have been completed. The Air India disinvestment process is closed. The shares have been transferred to Talace Pvt Ltd, which is the new owner of Air India: Tuhin Kant Pandey, Secretary, Department of Investment & Public Asset Management (DIPAM) pic.twitter.com/yfLBETERR5

¡ª ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2022

Tata chairman met PM Modi

Earlier, Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital before the handover.

Last month, the Competition Commission of India approved the acquisition of Air India, Air India Express and Air India SATS Airport Services by Talace, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons.

The acquisition envisaged 100 per cent equity share capital of Air India and Air India Express, and 50 per cent for that of Air India SATS Airport Services by Talace.

AFP

The airline, along with AIXL, is primarily engaged in the business of providing domestic and international scheduled air passenger transport service, along with air cargo transport service.

Air India SATS Airport Services is engaged in the business of providing ground handling services at Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mangaluru and Thiruvananthapuram airports, and cargo handling services at Bengaluru airport.

Tata Sons' subsidiary Talace had emerged as the highest bidder for the national carrier under the divestment process.

AFP

It had quoted an enterprise value of Rs 18,000 crore for 100 per cent equity shareholding of the Centre in Air India along with that of Air India Express and AISATS.

On its part, the Centre had stipulated a reserve price of Rs 12,906 crore.

With the acquisition completed, Tata Group is now entailed to constitute a new Air India Board with Tata nominees.

What new changes will it bring?

Tata Group, the new owners has reportedly envisaged several changes for Air India, including improving the airlines' On-Time-Performance.

There will be changes in seating arrangements and also the dress of the cabin crew. Tata is a leading player in the hotel business and it will give top priority to improve the quality of food in the airline, sources said.

AP

According to an Air India official, a recorded message of Ratan Tata will be played out on board in all Air India aircraft.

History of Air India

Air India, was originally founded by JRD Tata as Tata Airlines in 1932.

It was renamed Air India in 1946 and the Tata Group lost control of the airline after it was nationalised by the government in 1953.

Twitter

With Air India, the Tata Group now has three airline brands their' stable ¡ª it holds a majority interest in AirAsia India and Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines Ltd.

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