New Delhi: Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of the $100-billion Tata Group, today met civil aviation minister Ajit Singh to discuss the group’s proposal of an airline with Malaysia-based AirAsia.
Civil aviation ministry officials neither confirmed nor denied the news, though some sources said the meeting went on for almost an hour.
A few days back, AirAsia said it planned to take 49 per cent in the proposed joint venture with Tata Sons Limited, the holding company of the conglomerate.
The joint venture will have a third partner, Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace Private, an investment holding company, the airline told the stock exchange in Kuala Lumpur. Bhatia’s son Amit is Lakshmi Mittal’s son-in-law. Amit Bhatia and Air Asia’s chief Tony Fernandes are also co-owners of British football team Queens Park Rangers.
This is the second time the Tatas are starting an airline after JRD Tata’s initial venture, Tata Airlines, founded in the 1930s, was nationalised in 1948 and turned into Air India.
02/03/13 The Telegraph
