Spirits of the government's bid to sell off loss-making airline Air India, was dampened when not a single entity showed interest in the national carrier. “As informed by the transaction adviser, no response has been received for the expression of interest (EoI) floated for the strategic disinvestment of AI. Further course of action will be decided appropriately,” the Aviation Ministry tweeted on Thursday, the last day of submissions.
Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and deputy Jayant Sinha have remained mum on the failed attempt. Aviation secretary RN Choubey said a better response was expected. “It did not meet the expectations of participation that we had. Inputs will be taken from the transaction advisor on what went wrong and the plan is to reach the alternate mechanism (AI GoM) for solutions within a couple of weeks.” He made no comments on whether AI privatisation will happen in the remaining months of this government.
“We would not want AI to lose market share and may discuss allowing the carrier to continue with their expansion plans in the interim,” he added, indicating that the government will move swiftly in dealing with the defunct airline. Several airline executives, consultants and even government officials have listed a number of issues that the government will need to resolve to ensure that the Maharaja gets a taker.
