New Delhi : AirAsia top brass and Ratan Tata, their advisor, met several ministers here to speed up clearances for their proposed low-cost airline venture, saying they aimed to launch it by October,.
Besides Tata, who is the Advisor to AirAsia India, AirAsia Group chief Tony Fernandes and AirAsia India’s newly appointed CEO Mittu Chandilya held separate meetings with Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma through the day. The series of meetings came over three months after AirAsia got the FIPB nod to establish the joint venture for the proposed airline.
“They came here for security clearance for Air Asia. We will examine (their application) and take a call as soon as possible,” Shinde said after his meeting. Fernandes briefed all the ministers about the new appointments and other developments in the proposed airline, with the Civil Aviation Minister saying that his ministry would give NOC as soon as the Home Ministry clears the names. “They are working on that. When they get security clearance, they will apply to the DGCA (for flying permit). I don’t expect that it will take too long,” Ajit Singh said. Malaysian carrier AirAsia has formed a joint venture with Tata Group and Arun Bhatia-run Telestra TradePlace to launch its operation in India.
