Air India, Indian merger by March
The proposed merger between Air India and Indian will be completed by March, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said on Tuesday.
The ministry is likely to move a Cabinet note on the proposed merger in November after it receives a report from consultancy firm, Accenture. “There are no impediments in the process. Everything is going on as planned,” he said.
Sources said they have not received communication from the Prime Minister’s Office raising objections to the proposed merger. The process is on track, they added while refuting reports on objections to merger from various government arms.
Mr Patel said the consultancy firm, appointed to prepare the roadmap for the merger of the two state-owned carriers, will submit its report in October. “We hope the Cabinet note on the matter is ready by November after we receive this report,” he said adding the proposed merger process was moving on track and will be completed as planned within the current financial year ’06-07.
The merger of AI and Indian would churn out a mega carrier with about 130 aircraft that could take on giants like Singapore Airlines, Emirates and British Airways. The global aviation scenario has witnessed mega mergers in the past few years. While KLM merged with Air France, and Lufthansa took over Swiss. However, the Rs 2,200-crore take-over bid for Air Sahara by Jet Airways, failed to take off and the two sides are now locked in a complicated litigation.
Sources said areas like HR, operations & infrastructure needed to be looked into greater detail, before the merger proposal of national carriers could be finalised. A decision on the future of subsidiary organisations like Alliance Air and Air-India Express is also awaited.
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