No immediate plan to privatise Air India, says MoS Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma

NEW DELHI: The civil aviation ministry may turn to private sector to find a suitable candidate to head Air India, minister of state for civil aviation Mahesh Sharma on Thursday said on the sidelines of an Aviation Focus Summit organised by ET.

“If rules permit, I am open to the idea of hiring an expert from the private sector to run Air India,” Sharma told the media.

Earlier this month, the ministry had written to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to set up a search panel to find a head for the national carrier after the Public Enterprises Selection Board could not select a candidate for the job.

The term of the current chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan expired in August last year and he is on an extension till August this year.

Sharma also said that the government at this stage is not in favour of privatisation of Air India.

The minister said the government is likely to finalise the new civil aviation policy shortly. “We are waiting for certain inputs from stakeholders... I think within a very short time, could be in a week’s time, it should be finalised,” he said.

The ministry had unveiled a draft civil aviation policy in November last year that talks of abolishing 5/20 eligibility for international flying and divesting stake in Airports Authority of India and Pawan Hans Helicopters. As per the 5/20 norm, a domestic carrier needs to be in operation for at least five years and have a fleet of a minimum 20 aircraft to be eligible to fly on international routes.