New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said he was "not opposed" to Malaysian airline AirAsia's alliance with the Tata Group to set up a new low-cost carrier in India, but indicated he would have preferred the country's pre-eminent conglomerate to start its own airline.
In his first comments on the development, Singh also said the main purpose of a recent policy change in the civil aviation sector, which allows foreign airlines to own up to 49% stake in an Indian carrier, was to increase investment in existing Indian carriers. "I'm not opposed to the (AirAsia-Tata) alliance... The idea of the policy was to increase investment in Indian carriers. It would have been nice had the Tatas, with their kind of resources, started a new airline," he told ET in an interview on Thursday.
The proposed alliance among AirAsia, Tata Sons and the New Delhi-based Bhatia family (the Bhatias are relatives of steel baron LN Mittal), if approved by the government, will introduce a formidable new entrant into India's airline industry, where the dominant narrative has been one of pain, exemplified by the collapse of one-time leader Kingfisher Airlines.
22/02/13 Anindya Upadhyay/Economic Times
