Air India India`s oldest or first aviation company now going back to its home. Tata gets Air India by winning a bid of Rs.18,000 Crore as the Enterprise Value of Air India.
18,000 Crore is a huge number but Tata isn’t using all of this money. Instead, they’re taking up about 15,300 crores of debt from the beleaguered airline and they’re using their own money close to 2,700 crores in cash.
In this post, I will not discuss too much about the future of Indian aviation but I will take you to the history of Air India.
The Shining history of Air India
There was a time when Air India was considered the best airline in the world. The luxury travel, the food, and the interior decoration of the planes were amazing. The story begins in 1932, on 15 October JRD Tata took the first flight in the history of Indian aviation.
Within 6 years, Tata Air Mail owned 15 planes and they changed the name to Tata Airlines. In 1946 Tata Airlines becomes Air India a public company.
After the Independence, Govt of India acquires 49% shares in Air India. At the same time J.R.D. started a company called Air India International.
In 1953, Govt nationalize 8 domestic airlines and merged into one and Govt also nationalize Air India International. J.R.D. becomes the director of Indian Airlines and Chairman of Air India International.
Everything was going well, Air India was presenting India to the whole world, the service and gesture provided by Air India was an inspiration for many other international airlines.
In the decades of 1970-90, Air India was earning a good amount of money for the Indian government.
The tough days for Air India started after 1990 when Govt introduces privatization, the new players are started entering the aviation industry. New players started providing better rates, services and so many rewarding things which Air India didn’t.
The Fall of Air India
In 2007, With the loss of about 70 billion the Government-backed India’s national carrier was facing a huge financial crisis. Air India and India Airlines reported losses of ₹5.41 billion and ₹2.31 billion respectively.
For resolving this issue, the Government merged both airlines into one and makes a new company called National Aviation Co. of India.
The government tried so many things to revive Air India, like opening new routes but nothing works. As per an article published by Business Standard, Air India didn’t manage things properly like they were hiring more crew members to what they needed and making lots of wrong decisions.
The Homecoming of Air India
The Government finally decided to leave the hands of Air India in 2017 and after four years of procedure Tata Sons wins the bid of Air India and now Air India returns back to its home.
Conclusion
Due to improper management and bad decision making maybe because of the babu system and no one thinks about the probability of the airline.
In the early days even after the nationalization, Air India was one of the best airlines in the world but when management neglects it the downfall begins.
The downfall of Air India started because of bad decision making not because of its nationalized status.
We hope that Air India will fly on top of the sky because the roads still have the challengers like Akasa Airlines, Indigo, and SpiceJet.
So, Abhi bahut kuch hona baki hai in the Indian aviation industry.
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