Tata company win bids of Air India And two Other companies | History of Air India

 History Of Air India

Air India was found on 15th October 1932 by J.R.D. Tata. Air India Commenced operations in 1946.

Air India had its origin as Tata Air Services later renamed Tata Airlines, founded by J. R. D. Tata of Tata Son's aviator and business tycoon. In April 1932, Tata won a contract to carry mail for Imperial Airways and the aviation department of Tata Sons was formed with two single-engine de Havilland Puss Moths. 

The airline launched its first domestic flight from Bombay to Trivandrum with a six-seater Miles Merlin. In 1938, it was re-christened as Tata Air Services and later as Tata Airlines. Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Delhi were added to the destinations in 1938.

During the Second World War, the airline helped the Royal Air Force with troop movements, shipping of supplies, the rescue of refugees, and maintenance of aircraft.

After World War II, regular commercial service was restored in India and Tata Airlines became a public limited company on 29 July 1946 under the name Air India. 49% of the airline was acquired by the Government of India in 1948. 

Air India's first international flight On 8 June 1948 a Lockheed Constellation L-749A named Malabar Princess (registered VT-CQP) took off from Bombay bound for London Heathrow.

Nationalization:-

In 1953, the Government of India passed the Air Corporations Act and purchased a majority stake in the carrier from Tata Sons though its founder J. R. D. Tata would continue as Chairman till 1977.

The company was renamed Air India International Limited and the domestic services were transferred to Indian Airlines as a part of a restructuring. From 1948 to 1950, the airline introduced services to Nairobi in Kenya and to major European destinations Rome, Paris, and Düsseldorf.

In 2000, Air India introduced services to Shanghai, China. In May 2004, Air India launched a wholly-owned low-cost subsidiary called Air-India Express connecting cities in India with the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Until 2007, Air India mainly operated on international long-haul routes while Indian Airlines operated on domestic and international short-haul routes.

In 2000–01, attempts were made to re-privatize Air India. In 2007, Air India and Indian Airlines were merged under Air India Limited. The airline was invited to be a part of the Star Alliance in 2007.

After the merger, The combined losses for Air India and Indian Airlines in 2006–07 were ₹7.7 billion. it went up to ₹72 billion by March 2009. In July 2009, the State Bank of India was appointed to prepare a road map for the recovery of the airline. The carrier sold three Airbus A300 and one Boeing 747-300M in March 2009 for $18.75 million to finance the debt. By March 2011, Air India had accumulated a debt of ₹426 billion and an operating loss of ₹220 billion and was seeking ₹429 billion from the government. A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General blamed the decision to buy 111 new aircraft and the ill-timed merger with Indian Airlines for the poor financial situation. In 2012, a study commissioned by the Corporate Affairs Ministry recommended that Air India should be partly privatized.

In 2013, the Indian government planned to delay equity infusion of ₹300 billion that was slated to be infused into the airline slowly over a period of eight years. In January 2013, Air India cleared a part of its pending dues through funds raised by selling and leasing back the newly acquired Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

Star Alliance membership

Air India became the 27th member of Star Alliance on 11 July 2014. In August 2015, it signed an agreement with Citibank and State Bank of India to raise $300 million in external commercial borrowing to meet working capital requirements.

Re-privatisation

On 28 June 2017, the Government of India approved the privatization of Air India. A committee has been set up to start the process. In March 2018, the Government issued an Expression of Interest (EOI) to sell a 76% stake of Air India, along with low-cost airline Air India Express, and a 50% stake of AISATS, a ground handling joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS). According to the EOI, the new owner would have to take on a debt of ₹33,392 crores and a bid would have to be submitted by mid-May as the Government wanted to complete the selling process by the end of 2018, but no private firms showed any interest in buying the debt-laden airline.

Having failed on previous occasions to sell the airline, the Government decided to sell a 100% share of the airline and started its preparation in late-2019. On 27 January 2020, the Government released the Expression of Interest (EOI) to invite bidders. This time Govt. decided to sell 100% shares of both Air India and its budget carrier Air India Express as well as 50% shares of AISATS and to attract more bidders this time, the government has already decreased nearly ₹30,000 crores of debts and liabilities in a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

In September 2021, government-issued fresh tenders for selling the airlines, where Spice Jet's Ajay Singh-led consortium and Tata Sons shown interest in the bid. Finally, On 8 October 2021, Air India, along with its low-cost carrier Air India Express and fifty percent of AISATS, a ground handling company, was sold for ₹18,000 crores to Talace Privately Limited ( Tata ).

Why did Air India have a debt of Rs 60,000 crore?

Reasons:- 

1. Nationalization of Air India,

2. the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines,

3. Buying 111 aircraft immediately after the merger,

4. not properly Re-privatisation.

Due to all this and some political reasons, the debt of Air India has increased to rupee 60,000 thousand crore. If the government had not privatized Air India again, then this debt could have increased even more.

The Tata company, Ratan Tata, and the whole country have full hope that they will give this company back its former glory.