Government to go ahead with disinvestment of Air India, says Ministry of Civil Aviation

New Delhi, June 27: Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Sigh Puri on Thursday said that the government has decided to go ahead with the disinvestment of public air carrier Air India.

In a series of tweets, Hardeep Puri said that the government decided to continue with the strategic disinvestment after Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism, set up by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to overview the disinvestment process, gave favourable recommendation.

"In an AISAM (Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism) meeting held on 28th March 2018, it was decided that due to issues like volatile crude oil prices and adverse fluctuations in exchange rates, the atmosphere was not conducive for the disinvestment. But this was last year," the ministry said in a statement.

The AISAM, which is basically a Group of Ministers (GoM), has to be reconstituted as Arun Jaitley and Suresh Prabhu are no longer ministers in the second innings of the Narendra Modi government.

They will be replaced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari is likely to continue in the panel.

"Continued support from the government has resulted in improvement of financial and operational performances of Air India.

As per the recommendations of the AISAM, the government will now go ahead with the process of disinvestment of the company," the ministry said.

At a meeting on June 28, 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had in-principle approved the consideration for a strategic disinvestment of Air India and its five subsidiaries.