Air India sale: Here’s how UPA’s Praful Patel, AK Antony, others catapulted national carrier into debt
Zee News
Air India was catapulted into debt by nonsensical decisions of the UPA government coupled with abuse by its ministers such as Praful Patel and AK Antony, among others.
New Delhi: Tata Sons is finally buying Air India for a whopping Rs 18,000 crore from the Indian government, bringing back the airline started by Tata Group’s chairman JRD Tata in 1932, under its portfolio. The airline, once a revenue source for the government, was catapulted into debt by nonsensical decisions of the UPA government coupled with abuse by its ministers such as Praful Patel and AK Antony, among others.
Praful Patel became the Civil Aviation Minister in May 2004, when Air India was the market leader with a 42 per cent market share. The dawn of his tenure as aviation minister proved to be the dusk of Air India’s golden days.
Patel was allegedly involved in a fleet acquisition scam wherein the ministry decided to buy 68 planes for more than Rs 50,000 crore without any revenue plan or even a route map to deploy so many additional aircraft. The NDA government had earlier proposed to add 28 aircraft to Air India’s fleet.