Indicating keen interest in possibility of privatisation of Air India, Tata Group Chairman Emeritus, Ratan Tata on Friday said he would be glad to look at the issue whenever it takes place.
“As and when it happens, we would be very happy to look at it,” he said when asked whether he would be interested if Air India was privatised.
Mr. Tata's comments came weeks after Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had 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.
Mr. Tata was speaking to reporters after he along with Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong and Tata-SIA Airlines chairman Prasad Menon, met Mr. Singh.
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 was no such confusion within AirAsia India. “I am not aware of any such thing,” he added.
