- Friday, March 14, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
TATA Group patriarch Ratan Tata on Friday (8) welcomed the Indian government accepting Tata Sons’ bid of Rs 18,000 crore for the takeover of Air India, saying the carrier provides a very strong market opportunity to the group even though it will take some real effort to revive the debt-ridden airline.
The 83-year-old chairman emeritus of the group, who tweeted, “Welcome Back, Air India”, said in a statement, “The Tata Group winning the bid for Air India is great news.”
ALSO READ: Air India ‘comes home’: Tata Sons wins bid for national carrier
Welcome back, Air India ?? pic.twitter.com/euIREDIzkV
— Ratan N. Tata (@RNTata2000) October 8, 2021
“While admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India, it will hopefully provide a very strong market opportunity to the Tata Group’s presence in the aviation industry,” he added.
The government on Friday announced that an SPV of the salt-to-software conglomerate beat a consortium led by SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh to bag Air India.
The development marks the return of Air India to Tatas’ folds since they had founded the airline before it was nationalised in the 1950s.
“On an emotional note, Air India, under the leadership of Mr J R D Tata had at one time gained the reputation of being one of the most prestigious airlines in the world,” Tata said.
Tatas, he said, will have the opportunity of regaining the image and reputation it enjoyed in earlier years.
“Mr J R D Tata would have been overjoyed if he was in our midst today,” Ratan Tata said, thanking the Indian government for its opening of select industries to the private sector.
