Get to know about the history and homecoming of Air India. How it got started? How it got nationalized? How is it returning to TATA sons?
Whenever you hear the name 'TATA', What goes into your mind?
Quality Indian Products must have come to your mind TATA SALT, TCS, TATA MOTORS, TATA STEEL these companies must have come in your mind, But one company which very few are aware of is TATA AIRLINES because when this Company was started many of you were not even born TATA is such a company which is famous for its quality products not only in India but in other countries also.
So when TATA started its airlines, the quality of the airlines was also unmatchable. But then due to certain circumstances, it was nationalized Air India was made out of it and it suffered losses for a long time. And now Government is about to return this airline back to TATA sons.
So what's the story behind this airline How it got started? How it got Nationalized? How it Had gone through losses? How is it returning to TATA sons?
You would get to know all these in this Article.
INTRODUCTION-
The beginning of this airline is very interesting JRD TATA From the age of 15, he loved aircraft and flying At the age of 24, he got the license of flying an aircraft as a Pilot.
He got the license by clearing the exam with distinction. And he was the first Indian to do that And after this, he fulfilled his dream of starting airline. At that time it was not that easy to convey someone one's thoughts as it is nowadays with the help of SMS or WhatsApp.
So this airline was not meant for traveling of people but to carry messages. These types of aircraft are called mail carriers used to carry mails from one place to other.
Since at that time India and Pakistan were not separate so the route chosen by them involved Karachi, Mumbai, and Madras.
They invented 2 lakhs in this airline And they started with 2 planes, 3 pilots and 3 crew members At the time of the beginning of this airline time around the 1930s, The Civil Aviation Department mentioned that this was the only airlines working with 100% punctuality.
And people were very happy with their punctuality and quality. Don't forget, at that time India was under British rule Despite British airlines and Britishers were having huge capital and property all over the world even then the quality of this airline impressed the people a lot.
After this TATA requested the government to provide them some subsidy. Because subsidies were given to all private Businesses by other governments. But the government denied TATA.
After this TATA made a new proposal. He said to the government that we are demanding a very minimum subsidy and this subsidy is very common in other parts of the world But the government denied this also. But TATA was Determined. He invested more money on his own and made this airline a profitable one.
The profits were increased many folds by operating this.
And in 1936 they hired more pilots from England, trained them And by including more big aircrafts this airline was further expanded By 1946 this airline started passenger traveling alongside with mailing And expanding this airline to various European countries was also the plan of TATA.
But then this airline was nationalized Government bought 49% of the stakes of this company. Tata got 25% and the remaining 25% has been distributed among the public as shares.
Discussions about the expansion were also done in 1948 Air India was started internationally.
In this way, this airline was expanded globally JRD TATA was not happy with all this, And after this Government bought 2% more stakes and become the major stakeholder with 51% stakes The government observed that performance was not up to the mark in the domestic market So with a focus on the domestic market, they merged various airlines and formed the Indian Airlines This airline also started along with the Air India When JRD TATA Observed this, he openly criticized this decision JRD expressed his anguish that it seems that government doesn't want that a private carrier or airline especially TATA get successful in India I don't like this step at all JRD even gave a statement in an interview that this step of the Nehru Government is unacceptable But nothing stopped and AirIndia and Indian Airlines both were operating During this time Business of TATA was already on a high.
The government now wants to amend this The government now wants to return this company back to TATA.
So let's see how the discussions to sell this airline started In the year 2001 during the government of Vajpayee Ji it was understood that this company has already suffered many losses we should sell it.
So government proposed to sell 40% of their stakes. Is anyone interested to buy Then Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines agreed to take 20% stakes each But the whole atmosphere of this deal was ruined by the other competitors and this deal couldn't be completed. Then comes the year 2018 losses were touching sky (50,000 Crore INR) It was the time of the Modi Government, they proposed to sell 76% of their stakes because the government is unable to cope up with the losses and we'll keep 24% of the stakes But no one turned up Nobody wanted to takeover this airlines as the losses were so high And now 100% of stakes are to be sold and TATA Sons won the bid And all this development could be understood with the help of this chart.
Where some losses and debt will be cleared up by the government for this, the government will make different entities And some losses will be absorbed by Tata And Tata has also given some money to the government for transferring assets So in this way, the whole deal is operating Along with this deal Now, TATA owns 4 Airlines They already have Vistara Airlines and Air Asia and now they also own Air India and Air India Express And now they will have a huge number of employees.
So this way the whole deal will operate For the next 5 years, TATA has to own this brand and after that, they can sell this to any domestic operator if they want But this is certainly an emotional moment for Tata An airline which was the legacy of Tata's Many companies of TATA were operating but JRD TATA decided to remain the chairperson and director of Airindia and Indian airlines.
Whenever he travel anywhere he used to carry a diary with him. He used to write the shortcomings and what can be improved in the aircraft. And also used to give feedback regarding this.
And there is a story that once he called the publisher at night that Can we change the font of the advertisement running on the aircraft? Nowadays, none of the businessmen should be so curious to change small things like this And the changes in these small things made the quality of Air India and Indian airlines top notch TATA used to advise his employees that the aircraft must look as it is newly manufactured whenever any passenger sit in the aircraft. And this was even maintained by them.
That's why they launched the maharaja mascot and this airline gives the feeling of maharaja airlines And actually, this airline was very lavish Singapore Airlines which is so famous today wanted to collaborate with Air India to look at how this airline operates so efficiently because TATA made profits even after giving quality and being punctual This was missing in other airlines To learn this, various airlines started coming to TATA. But in 1978 an airplane of the Airindia crashed into a sea and this caused the death of 213 passengers TATA was not involved directly in the accident.
The accident happened due to a mistake done by the pilot. But after this incident, Tata was forced to give up his post of chairman and director After this in the 1980s during the government of Indira Gandhi, Tata was again included as a board member, Not as the chairman but he got included as a board member And he served not as a chairperson but as a board member till 1986 Then came 1990 and in 1991 India got liberalized And in 2003 Deccan airlines was started which was India's first low-cost carrier.
And after this various low-cost carriers were started in India like Go Air, SpiceJet, and Indigo And the market share of these low-cost carriers increased from 1% in 2003 to 70% in 2010 and Indian Airlines continuously slipped from the market share Due to this, the decision of merging The Indian airlines and AirIndia was taken As an effect, the number of planes and workers went so high that losses started growing more.
The merging of these two was completed in 2011 and after that, the losses were always higher than their operation. When losses went so high then people thought that selling this company is the only option
So till now, we have seen that an airline which was operating so beautifully whose quality was top levelwas nationalized and then it started to give nothing except losses which was looked after like a child which was profitable and whose quality was complimented by everyone
Was ruined after snatching
The condition was so made that no one wanted to buy this in 2018 as losses and debts were high
So this is the History and Homecoming of Air India.
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