New owner for Air India likely by September

Air India could finally have a new owner by September — if the latest plans of the Indian government do take off.

The government is inviting bids from those who qualified from the first round of preliminary submissions, including the Tata Group.

A successful takeover of Air India will reintroduce a reinvigorated airline into the global aviation space and capable of serving key destinations.

But the new owner will still have to account for a debt load of over $8 billion — unless the government helps out in some way. As per reports, Tata Group, part owner of Vistara and Air Asia India, and SpiceJet’s chairman and managing director Ajay Singh have been shortlisted to bid for the carrier.

The name of a UAE-based investor group was also thrown into the mix, but it denied those reports.