Air India has clarified that Alliance Air is no longer its subsidiary. In a statement on Thursday, the Tata Sons-owned airline informed that it will not handle any bookings or queries related to Alliance Air from April 15 onwards.
“Alliance Air is no longer a subsidiary of Air India,” the statement read. “Passengers holding tickets of Air India with a 4-digit flight number starting with ‘9’ or 3-digit flight number starting with ‘9I’ may please be informed that these bookings belong to Alliance Air.”
Air India also advised passengers to contact Alliance Air via contact numbers +91-44-4255 4255 and +91-44-3511 3511, email ID support@allianceair.in, or website details www.allianceair.in for further assistance.
Alliance Air operates flights to 47 destinations, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Bikaner, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Delhi, Dharamshala, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jammu, Kochi, Kolkata, Kullu, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Mysuru, Pune, etc., with a fleet of 18 ATR 72-600 (70- or 72-seater) aircraft. The carrier operates flights mostly to tier-2 and tier-3 Cities or those which link these cities to the metro hubs. Alliance Air provides connections to international stations through its hubs. The airline operates 450 flights per week and 64 flights every day, according to its website.
Air India, which used to wholly own Alliance Air, was sold to Tata Sons under an ambitious disinvestment plan to cut the government stake in the loss-making airline. The Tata group controls Air India through its subsidiary Talace. The conglomerate also owns Air India Express and 50% stake in ground handling unit Air India SATS.
Air India was started as Tata Airlines in 1932 and then it was renamed as Air India in 1946. It was nationalised in 1953, returning to its original founder after 69 years.
Tata Sons’ fiscal cost for acquiring Air India comes out to be ₹2,700 crore, 15% of the national carrier’s enterprise value of ₹18,000 crore. It has taken over ₹15,300 crore debt of the beleaguered airline. The government is expected to write off around ₹28,000 crore as sovereign debt.
Earlier this week on Tuesday, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, law minister Kiren Rijiju and Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu flagged off Alliance Air’s first flight using Dornier Do-228 aircraft. The planes, made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), will be operated from Dibrugarh in Assam to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh and finally to Lilabari in Assam. This makes Alliance Air the first commercial airline to fly domestically made aircraft for civil operations.
