In October 2021, the Tata Group won a two-party bidding to acquire Air India from the Government of India. They quickly signed off the share-purchase agreement as well, and from there began the arduous task of preparing for a return of the airline to the original founder, the Tata group.
Tata Group is likely to complete the acquisition on January 27, 2022
Air India’s Finance head has written an internal memo to the team which runs the Finance function at the airline, advising them that January 27, 2022, is the date that the acquisition will be closed. As of today, January 24, 2022, the closing balance sheet has to be provided to the Tatas which will be reviewed by the Tata Group and they come back to Air India. Subsequently, things will move forward. The Tata Group will transfer the cash consideration from the deal to the Government of India and become the new owners of Air India, Air India Express and 50% owners of AISATS.
It is not known, yet, about the CEO/ Managing Director of the new entity.
Bottomline
By the time January 2022 ends, Air India could return to becoming a Tata Group company if everything is okay from here on. This would mean, the airline is hopefully starts its journey upward from there.
What are your expectations from Air India, once it returns to the TATA Group?
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Hey Ajay,
Initially when the deal closed it was said that the 4 Jumbo’s wouldn’t be transferred over to the Tata’s, I remember asking you about it and you had speculated it could be that they either wanted to keep the Jumbo’s out since they served no real purpose or that they’d be sold along with Alliance Air. New reports now state that the 4 Jumbo’s are being transferred over to the Tata’s after all, what giveth?
Do you see the Jumbo’s operating a one off flight under the Tata’s? (Would be cool to have a proper last flight, Air India didn’t even acknowledge the last one and claimed they’d fly in the future)
I’m sorry for the confusion, “Initially when the deal closed it was” please take it as “Initially when it was announced that the Tata’s would take over it was”
@Chandan, Air India does not have any pilots to fly the 747s as of now, as they were all transitioned to the 777 fleets, so I believe it would be a herculean effort. Also, I don’t understand why the Tata Group even agreed to take those aircraft on, unless they want to put them up in some sort of flight museum or sell them off to some cargo airline.