The government is still hopeful that the Delhi-based low-cost airline IndiGo will participate in the bidding process for Air India stake.

“Let us see whether they (IndiGo) finally bid or not. We will wait for them. We have opened the window to receive suggestions if there are any. We will go through all the suggestions,” RN Choubey, Secretary, Civil Aviation, said in response to questions from the media, on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Choubey’s statement comes less than 96 hours after IndiGo issued a public statement withdrawing from the Air India privatisation process.

“We do not believe that we have the capability to take on the task of acquiring and successfully turning around all of Air India’s airline operations,” Aditya Ghosh, President and Whole-Time Director, IndiGo, had said in a statement. Incidentally, IndiGo was one of the first airlines to express an interest and put in an “unsolicited” bid with the government even before the formal divestment process started.

The Secretary also said that no foreign airline has yet formally shown an interest in bidding for Air India. The government formally started the process of privatising the airline on March 28 by issuing the Preliminary Information Memorandum.

It has set May 14 as the date by which those interested in picking up a stake in the airline can put up their bids and the final winner will be named on May 28.

“I am unable to say whether there will be an extension or not (to the deadlines which have been drawn up). We would like to take up the process very, very fast so normally we would not prefer to give an extension,” the Secretary said adding that the government is “not looking at the option of splitting Air India into domestic and international operations.”

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