The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has recently stated that it has given nod to the purchase of AirAsia India Ltd.’s complete shareholding by Air India Ltd.

According to a notice issued by the fair-trade regulator, the move will see the purchase of the AirAsia (India) Pvt Ltd.'s all-inclusive proprietorship by Air India Ltd (AIL), a wholly owned unit of TSPL (Tata Sons Pvt Ltd).

AirAsia India is a JV between AAIL (Air India Investment Limited) and TSPL, with AAIL currently preserving a 16.33% share and TSPL holding around 83.67% share.

AIL, along with its exclusively owned subsidiary AIXL (Air India Express Limited), is primarily engaged in offering air cargo transport services, local scheduled air passenger transport services, charter flight services, international air passenger transport services in India.

Meanwhile, AirAsia India, which commenced flying in June 2014, offers scheduled air passenger transport, charter flight services and air cargo transport. However, it also does not own international operations.

In a recent tweet, the CCI said it had approved the procurement of Air India’s overall shareholding of AirAsia India.

Last year, Air India and its unit Air India Express were obtained by Talace Pvt. Ltd., a wholly-owned arm of Tata Sons Private Ltd. Also, Tatas runs the full-service airline Vistara with Singapore Airlines in a joint venture.

In January this year, the company acquired Air India and Air India Express. It won the bidding for loss-making Air India in October 2021. Later it proposed a bid of 18,000 crores ($2.3 billion), covering cash payment of Rs 2,700 crores (3.45 billion) and acquiring the carrier debt of 15,300 crores ($19.5 billion).

The deals beyond an expected threshold need the approval of CCI, which functions to foster competition and limit anti-competitive practices in the marketplace.

Source Credit - https://indianexpress.com/article/business/aviation/cci-approves-proposed-acquisition-of-airasia-india-by-air-india/