A-I, Indian merger to create behemoth

Mumbai: If the government merges Air-India with Indian, the new entity will be powerful enough to close in on the big boys of aviation like Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Emirates.
Besides having a fleet of 120 aircraft, the proposed entity will have a workforce of 33,000, a combined turnover of $4 billion and control over 70 per cent of the real estate at airports (like parking bays, hangars and maintenance slots) in Mumbai and Delhi.
In the next three years, the merged entity will be able to compete with leading carriers in Asia like Emirates, which has over 93 aircraft, Singapore Airlines (118) and Malaysian Airlines (110). It will also give tough competition to its domestic rival Jet Airways.
Air-India now has 15,500 employees while Indian has 18,000.
28/11/06 P R Sanjai/Business Standard

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