Parliamentary panel slams Indian Airlines, Air India merger

New Delhi, Jan 21(ANI): A parliamentary panel on Thursday criticized the Government's hasty decision of merging Indian Airlines and Air India, saying that the merger has only created an unfortunate situation.

The committee said the decision to merge the two carriers was done without proper homework.

"The manner in which the merger was implemented and the manner in which various issues connected to the merger were tackled has led to an unfortunate situation," said Sitaram Yechuri, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport and Tourism.

Yechury further said that the merger has added to the woes of country's civil aviation sector.

"This has created a situation where instead of utilizing the synergies of both Air India and Indian Airlines and taking on the contribution both domestically and internationally, we are ending up losing out in the process," Yechury said.

The merger of state-run Air India and Indian Airlines was done in 2007 with the approval of the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

The two state-run airlines were merged into National Aviation Company Ltd.

The parliamentary committee felt the differences of aircraft types and human resources existing within National Aviation Company had become a stumbling block in achieving the required economies of scale. (ANI)