AI-Indian merger in full swing: Thulasidas

New Delhi, Apr 25 (UNI) All legal formalities relating to the merger of government-owned Air India (AI) and Indian will be complete by June and integration of flight schedules could start by winter schedule (October-end).

Both airlines currently fly within a space of hours on many routes in southeast Asia and the Gulf, prompting critics to say that they compete with each other rather than complimenting each other's role.

''In the next winter schedule, the single merged entity will fly to common routes like the Gulf,'' said AI's chairman and managing director Vasudevan Thulasidas. He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of three-day US-India Aviation Partnership Summit here which wound up today.

Mr Thulasidas said AI and Indian have formed working groups to integrate ranks of manpower over the next 18 months. ''These working groups have already started meeting. The scheme of amalgamation will require approval from the boards.'' The two airlines, which once enjoyed a monopoly, have steadily lost market share to newer private players and have been criticised for their ageing fleets and bloated workforce. With the merger, they plan to take on international and more nimble-footed domestic carriers with a fleet of spanking new aircraft.

AI has signed up for 68 Boeing planes while Indian, formerly known as Indian Airlines, last year ordered 43 new Airbus aircraft.

The government has registered a new company called National Aviation Company Ltd to amalgamate AI and Indian along with their low-fare subsidiaries AI Express and Alliance Air.

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