Turkey company Celebi keen to bid for Air India ground handling unit
- ByStartupStory | April 26, 2022
Ground handling firm Celebi Aviation is very eager to bid for Air India’s ground handling unit(AIATS) when it’s put on the block by the government, its India CEO Murali Ramachandran has said.
Ramachandran added that the Air India ground handling subsidiary, which is at present sitting within the holding company that the government has set up, will be up for sale and that they are keenly looking forward to the PIM (preliminary information memorandum) coming up for that.
Air India Air Transport Services Ltd /AIATS provides ground handling services at 63 airports across India. Celebi was also one of the first companies to express interest when the government first proposed to put AIATS up for privatisation in the year 2019.
Sources believe that the government may put it on the block in the month of May.
Automobile-to-aviation giant Tata Sons won the bid for erstwhile national carrier Air India in October 2021. AIATS, however wasn’t part of that deal. “If we get AIATS, we will be supporting Tatas through the handling of Air India’s ground handling,” said Ramachandran.
Four Air India subsidiaries -AIATS, Airline Allied Services Ltd (AAS), Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIES), and Hotel Corporation of India Ltd (HCI) – and Air India’s non-core assets, painting and artifacts, along with a huge chunk of its debt were transferred to a special purpose vehicle called Air India Asset Holdings Ltd (AIAH). Ramachandran said that Celebi already handles ground handling for AirAsia India, and while overall demand is coming back, Celebi’s business is dependent on the demand for international flights.
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