Private airline IndiGo has expressed unsolicited interest in buying a stake in national carrier Air India.
IndiGo owner InterGlobe Aviation confirmed it through a letter expressing an interest in buying the international operations of Air India and Air India Express to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
InterGlobe President Aditya Ghosh said, "As the Indian Government embarks on the journey of privatising Air India and given IndioGo track record of having created a consistently profitable airline with a strong balance sheet. Kindly treat this letter as our expression of interest in acquiring the International airline operations of Air India and Air India Express. Alternatively, we are equally interested in acquiring all of the airline operation of Air India and Air India Express."
The government's decision on Wednesday to privatise debt-laden Air India, the first step of a process that could see the government offload an airline struggling to turn a profit in the face of growing competition from low-cost rivals.
Air India, once the country's biggest airline, has seen its domestic market share shrivel to 13 percent as private rivals such as IndiGo and SpiceJet have expanded.
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