Draft Cabinet note on Air India divestment suggests allowing foreign cos to bid: Sources

A draft Cabinet note on Air India divestment has been circulated among ministries, reported CNBC-TV18.

According to CNBC-TV18, sources suggest that the draft includes different ways of Air India divestment.

Sources also claim the note proposes competitive bidding, and recommends allowing foreign entities to bid for Air India's strategic divestment.

The note also proposes selling of Air India's profitable subsidiaries separately and appointing a transaction advisor to strengthen its business strategy, say sources.

Denzil Keelor, former Advisor of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said, "This should have been done much earlier because Air India had been losing large chunks of money every day for the last ten years."

"It was in the same boat as Kingfisher but since AI is a government company the ministry has been giving taxpayer money to the airline to carry on," Keelor said.

According to Keelor, the whole process will take about a year to complete.

Air India had been running a loss over the past decade -- barely making any operational profit except in FY16.