Union Minister Jayant Sinha said that government is committed to the strategic disinvestment of Air India.

Union Minister Jayant Sinha said today that the government is committed to the strategic disinvestment of Air India. The government has also said that it will review alternative options for privatisation of Air India after the state-run carrier failed to attract any bidders last month for strategic sale of 76 percent of its stake.

Sinha, the minister of state for civil aviation, said the government is committed to the strategic disinvestment of Air India. However, the process for selling 76 per cent stake in the airline is over now, he added.

On Tuesday, the government decided to put Air India disinvestment plan on hold given it has been the election year, citing high fuel prices is not good for privatisation of the state-run airline. The government will, however, continue to provide required funds for its operations.

The decision was taken at the top level meeting chaired by Union Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday. The meeting was



attended by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and other senior officials of finance and civil aviation ministries.

“The airline is posting operational profits. None of the flights go empty. With all the cost-efficient mechanism in place, we will continue improving its operational efficiency. There is no need to rush in for disinvestment as of now,” the official told PTI.

The source said, “Certain conditions have to be met before listing a company. Once Air India fulfils those, we will go in for an initial public offering and subsequent listing,”

On May 31 the Air India disinvestment process had a setback when no investor participated in the bidding for buying the stake. IndiGo Airlines had initially said that it was keen on buying the shares but later pulled out after the government specified that it was not selling Air India’s international operations separately.