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02-11-2025
Bureau Report: NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: Air India is seeking at least 100 billion rupees ($1.14 billion) in financial support from owners Singapore Airlines, opens new tab and Tata Sons, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The development follows a deadly Air India crash in June that killed more than 240 passengers, plunging the carrier into its worst crisis and complicating its push to restore its reputation and modernize its fleet.
The Tata Group-owned carrier is requesting funds to overhaul Air India’s systems and services as well as developing in-house engineering and maintenance departments, the report said.
Any financial support would be proportional to ownership, Bloomberg said, adding that the owners would decide if the funding will be an interest-free loan or via equity.
Tata Group, which bought Air India in 2022, has a 74.9% stake in the airline, with Singapore Airlines holding the rest.
Singapore Airlines has been working closely with their partner Tata Sons to support Air India’s transformation program, including providing expertise and support to the airline, a spokesperson for Singapore Airlines said in an email response to Reuters.
Yesterday, Air India’s CEO vowed on Wednesday to improve internal practices after a plane crash in June killed 260 people, in his first public comments about the accident that he said would contribute to a “challenging” year for the airline.
The Tata Group-owned carrier has been facing intense scrutiny ever since the crash, from warning notices for running planes without checking emergency equipment to not changing engine parts in time and forging records, along with other lapses related to crew fatigue management.
“We’re always looking at how we can keep improving,” CEO Campbell Wilson said at an Aviation India event in India’s capital city, speaking publicly for the first time since the crash of the Boeing, opens new tab Dreamliner in India’s Ahmedabad city.
“This year will be quite challenging from a business perspective … We’re also working with the investigators,” he added.
India’s air accidents investigating agency published an interim report earlier this year saying the plane’s fuel engine switches had almost simultaneously flipped from run to cutoff just after takeoff.
Air India also faces delayed jet deliveries and airspace closures due to geopolitical tensions, which have weighed on its performance as it strives to recover from the crash.
However, the Indian rupee fell on Friday but managed to hold above its all-time low on the back of intermittent dollar sales by state-run banks that also helped the currency end the month on a quiet note.
The rupee had rallied to a peak of 87.6250 earlier this month following heavy-handed intervention by the central bank, but has since shed those gains to once again hover close to its record low of 88.80, hit in late-September.
The currency ended Friday’s session slightly lower at 88.7650 and was little changed month-on-month.
India’s benchmark equity indexes, the BSE Sensex, opens new tab and Nifty 50, opens new tab, were both down 0.4% each, tracking weakness in Asian peers, but were set to end October over 4.5% higher, their best monthly gain since March.
While traders expect the Reserve Bank of India to continue keeping a lid on rupee volatility, the broad bias is geared towards depreciation in the absence of clear progress on a US-India trade deal.
