[Foxbat]

The First Class Air India 747 experience from its Golden years is/will be available in the US it seems!

https://youtu.be/6V2hujQuiEg

I hope the airline will be able to regain its former glory, maybe get some A380s to have a lounge with those intricate wallpapers?

[V.Narayan]

https://indianexpress.com/article/in...uture-7247989/

https://theprint.in/economy/sale-of-...i-says/629367/

The Govt. seems a little more serious this time. The Minister for Civil aviation said that the choice is not whether to disinvest or not but whether to disinvest or shut down. The airline loses US$200 million (~INR 1400 crores) per day. Just imagine what the country could do with that money on other far more vital necessities - schools, hospitals, low cost housing etc. As I have mentioned earlier I was a part of the last attempt at dis-investment and had a ring side view. The current Minister Hardeep Puri, is in my personal opinion, miles ahead in both competency and common sense than the previous incumbent at that time in 2016-2017.

For the sake of Air India and the country I hope this 100% sale goes through. Of the bidders my bet is on Tata's though Spicejet is known to be close to the ruling party. The Bhatia group, IMHO, don't really have what it takes.

[aargee]

Sharing a little stint of my frustration on booking in AirIndia yesterday afternoon. If you may please keep out the question why I had to book AirIndia, please read on...

Went through website to book a ticket from Trivandrum to Delhi to Lucknow as multi city booking & the fare was Rs 80xx for a single person. However, I couldn't apply student discount & it was for adult.

So called up AirIndia to book through telephone (yes it happens in 2021). First irritating experience is, I had to raise my voice as the personnel on the other side couldn't hear is what she complained to me. Next is, I had to repeat everything 4 times. YES 4 TIMES!! And she agreed she has hearing problem. And a little voice in me says, then why dear govt put her in such a strenuous job? Why couldn't you allocate her to some back office work where she didn't have to listen to customers over the phone??

Next is I had to explain to her in terms NATO alphabet!! When I say, A as in Australia, she couldn't comprehend. She wanted to hear, A as in Alpha & Alpha only!! Wondering what she or the other customers who're calling might have to undergo who don't know what's NATO alphabet listing. Even my phone number I had to repeat it 4-5 times & not just that, she couldn't understand that email ID ends with .COM. Could've pardoned even if she asked if it's .CO.IN, but she wrote it as .TOM & I was quite fortunate enough to catch hold it!!

The icing on the cake was, the price now jumps to Rs 11,xxx. And on asking why, she says that's the price of adult when I had clearly stated it's for a child. Whew!! Asked her to apply for student discount & now the price is Rs 9166. On asking why the price is more than 8xxx, she says it's because I had queried it multiple times & asked to give a call later if I wanted lower price.

On account of repeating things 8 times, I decided the price is a lot cheaper & settled with Rs 9166. Forget disinvestment, I would still be happy if they closed the national airlines of India for such ____ (please fill in) service!!

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by aargee

, I would still be happy if they closed the national airlines of India for such ____ (please fill in) service!!

Well, yes this was a harrowing customer support experience.

I have a more positive view of the airline. Last December I took an AI flight from Delhi to Bangalore. The flight experience itself was quite good. Their planes are really good, good legroom and they give you extra 10kg luggage allowance (over other airlines) one thing I did notice is that while in other airline (on my indigo flight from Bangalore to Delhi) I had severe pain in my ears (I have felt that many times, especially on indigo flights) but there was no such issue on the Air India flight.

[volkman10]

Air India disinvestment: Tata Sons wins bid for national carrier.

This marks the return of Air India to Tata fold after 67 years. The Tata Group founded Air India as Tata Airlines in October 1932. The government nationalised the airline in 1953.

A panel of ministers has reportedly accepted Tata Sons' proposal to take over Air India

While SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh had also submitted a bid for the airline, government sources have confirmed that Tata Sons has won the final bid for acquiring the airline.


Link

[Foxbat]

Tata Group emerges winner of Air India bid: Report

Tata Group is likely to have emerged as the winner of the Air India bid with the panel of ministers giving its final approval, Bloomberg reported.

Tatas are believed to have submitted a higher bid than rival Ajay Singh of SpiceJet. The Tata bid is about Rs 3,000 crore higher than the reserve price set by the government and about Rs 5,000 crore more than the bid by Singh, a report in this newspaper cited sources as saying.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/86673468.cms

[Gannu_1]

So happy for them! The group that started Air India finally comes to save them. JRD would be smiling from above. :-)

That said, Air India really has a lot of work cutout for them to get the mess sorted and get them back in the highly competitive segment - equipment, crew, areas served, pricing.

Wish them the best!

[sagarpadaki]

I really hope that Tata can turn around the airline. They need to cut the flab, trim the unnecessary processes and make the Airline lean. With the experience of Vistara under their belt, it should be possible.

All the best to Tata. I wish to see Air India back to its glory. They have a good quality fleet and premium slots at airports across the globe.

What will happen to all the debt of the Airline? Will be it written off by the govt before the sale and handover?

[SnS_12]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

For the sake of Air India and the country I hope this 100% sale goes through. Of the bidders my bet is on Tata's though Spicejet is known to be close to the ruling party. The Bhatia group, IMHO, don't really have what it takes.

Really happy to hear its back with Tata's and had it gone to Spicejet it would have been a bigger disaster then what the airline is already in thanks to our babus.

Also, it seems now they will bring low-fare airline AirAsia India under the Air India umbrella and at a later stage, full service carrier Vistara is also likely to be part of a combined entity if Singapore Airlines (SIA), its 49% shareholder, comes on board.

Now with Tata and Indigo how competitive/successful will Akasa of Mr. Jhunjhunwala be?

Originally Posted by Foxbat

[b] Tatas are believed to have submitted a higher bid than rival Ajay Singh of SpiceJet. The Tata bid is about Rs 3,000 crore higher than the reserve price set by the government and about Rs 5,000 crore more than the bid by Singh, a report in this newspaper cited sources as saying.

That's a huge difference and they seriously went all out to win this bid.

[sahil624]

Well as per the latest news, Tata sons getting the bid for Air India is incorrect

[RM Motorsports]

A little bit of flashback in Air India history.

[am1m]

As Bhpian aargee's post shows, a major issue is the competence of the staff. So will the new owners have the freedom to run it like a private enterprise, basically make jobs merit-based? Remember reading that a part of the deal was that the private owners couldn't make sweeping personnel changes. I guess that condition has been removed?

Also hope it has really gone to the Tatas. It will certainly benefit from being run as a private enterprise, but a National Carrier (capital N, capital C!) has to also be so much more! I think they will ensure that.

[V.Narayan]

Thought I'd never see this happen in my lifetime.

Full marks to the current Minister for Civil Aviation whom I have a lot of respect for and the IAS officers who steered this. Prominent amongst whom RN Chaubey comes to my mind. This one move - hope it comes through successfully - distinguishes this Govt from the ones that went before. The entrenched vested interests in bureaucracy, unions, and politicians makes Air India a Harvard Business school case study.

My very best wishes to Mr. Ratan Tata and the Mr. N. Chandrasekaran for the journey ahead. This also paves the way for other divestments. Finally all the talk and smoke of literally ~25 years has come to the last lap.

Air India did not deserve to be nationalized in the first place in 1953. Nationalization was the fashion of the day using the excuse that private sector did not have the resources to pay for and build national infrastructure. This was, IMHO, a pure lie at least where Air India went. JRD Tata had built it without a dime from the Govt and had enough credibility to have continued building it further. The argument of the Govt did however hold true for the myriad small domestic carriers that mushroomed between 1945 and 1953. But for the bureaucrats and politicians of the 1950s to 1970s nationalization was a route to amass power and through that wealth for the party and the self.

While the father of nationalization and PSUs, Nehru however, had the good sense to permit JRD stay on as Chairman. A saving grace. This enabled Air India to pursue excellence in operations, cabin service and fleet quality. In 1961 Air India became the first airline in the world with an all-jet fleet {of Boeing 707s}. In 1971 it became the second Asian airline to operate the Boeing 747. In the 1970s when Singapore looked around for an airline to train its cabin crew it picked Air India. Same with Cathay Pacific. Then came Morarji Desai who in February 1978 summarily and most shabbily sacked JRD through an announcement on All India Radio! How much more petty could he have been.

In his letter to Nehru in 1953 JRD had written that Indian civil aviation could not thrive or meet the national need under a PSU run by bureaucrats. He was right after all. God bless JRD.

In the 1970s when I was a teenager there were very few points in the national landscape you could clutch on and be proud of as being a world beater - Air India run by JRD was one.

I wish the new revitalized Air India reverts back to its livery of the 1970s.

To the question by member @sagarpadaki on the debt. To best of my knowledge the debt or most of it has been re-assigned to an SPV (special purpose vehicle) from where the Govt will figure out how to dispose it of. Most of the debt in any case is owed to the Govt. At least that is how this was configured the last time around about 4 years ago. I have not read the current RFP as I'm no longer in the trade. If the debt had been retained then the value of the airline is a negative i.e. the Govt would have to pay someone to take it off their hands.

50 years ago in 1971 my father took me to Santacruz aerodrome {yes that's what it was called then} to watch, the first 747, Emperor Ashoka arrive in India. Today is another red letter day.

[Cyborg]

The news reported by Bloomberg/media earlier about Tata Sons winning the bid for Air India is INCORRECT. Government has clarified that it’s not correct, they will inform the media as and when a decision is taken.

https://www.ndtv.com/business/incorr...-years-2560163

Dear Mr. Narayan, agree with your views. Hope it does happen in our lifetime.

Cheers

[ABHI_1512]

This Air India going to the Tatas has been denied by the Secretary, Department of investment and public asset management. There may be something going on behind the scenes which is not in public domain of- course. There may be a twist in the tale after all, I won’t be surprised if Spicejet somehow ends up winning the bid despite the opinion to the contrary.

Most of the media outlets have reported the news and denial from the govt handle is unusual to say the least !!