Decision on Air India, Indian merger likely this year

New Delhi: A decision to merge Air India and Indian is likely to be taken in the current fiscal to turn the combined entity into a mega carrier with about 130 aircraft to take on the major global carriers like Singapore Airlines, Emirates and British Airways.
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India set to merge Air India, Indian Airlines in 2006
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Keeping in mind the global aviation scenario where such mega mergers have taken place in the recent past, from KLM-Air France and Lufthansa-SwissAir to Jet Airways and Air Sahara in India, "it is an absolutely logical proposal to consolidate and optimise the use of the assets of the two public sector airlines," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told PTI in an interview here. Maintaining that such a proposal would have to be cleared by the Union Cabinet, he said "this should happen within 2006-07 and added that the two airlines were already attempting to synergise their operations.
16/03/06 PTI/The Hindu

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