Monday, October 11, 2021

Air India, Tata deal benefits all areas of civil aviation, says Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia

After several attempts in the last two decades, the government has been successful in selling the debt-laden national carrier, Air India. Last week, the erstwhile owners of the airline, the Tatas emerged as the winning bidder. CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan spoke to Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia who called the sale a landmark and elaborated on the national carrier's debt and how it will be managed.

After several attempts in the last two decades, the government has been successful in selling the debt-laden national carrier Air India. Last week, the erstwhile owners of the airline, the Tatas emerged as the winning bidder for Air India. As a part of the Rs 18,000 crore deal, the Tatas will take over Rs 15,300 crore in debt and pay Rs 2,700 crore in cash.

The remaining debt of around Rs 45,000 crore will be transferred to the government’s special purpose vehicle, which already carries Rs 22,000 crore transferred earlier.

CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan spoke to Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia who called the sale a landmark and elaborated on the national carrier's debt and how it will be managed.

He said, “This is a landmark occurrence for the area of civil aviation. I think it benefits all stakeholders in the area of civil aviation, whether it be Air India as an airline, whether it is the ultimate customers whose responsibility it is for me to serve. I would like to congratulate the winners of this transaction, namely the Tatas and I am very confident that under their stewardship, Air India and their other airlines together will pose a tremendous brand entity for the customer in the space and we will see the civil aviation sector also rising.”

Scindia said that there is an equity portion that has been received as part of the bid, which is 15 percent of the Rs 18,000 crore figure, almost close to about Rs 2,700 crore, which will also be used to set off some of the debt in the SPV.

He said there is a plan in place to take care of a sizable portion of that debt burden while the rest will lie with the government in that SPV.

11/10/21 CNBC TV18

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