Govt plans to sell Air India’s real estate

The government has decided to sell some of the Maharajah’s real estate along with the strategic sale of the airline’s ground handling subsidary Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL) in order to reduce debt burden of the company.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave the green light to sell 27 acres of Air India’s land in the capital’s upmarket Vasant Vihar to public sector company NBCC. This land will be used to build high-end luxury apartments. The panel reportedly also took an in-principle decision to take up the sale of a large plot on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, in Central Delhi, which can be taken up for commercial use.

The next phase of monetising the beleaguered airline’s assets the Centre will decide on several buildings that it owns. The logic is clearly to get rid of all the real estate that the airline does not need. As per government estimates, the sale of AIATSL and some of the other subsidiaries, along with the monetisation of Air India’s land assets, could help the debt-ridden carrier raise over Rs 10,000 crore, which will be used to repay lenders.