Air India: A white elephant in the sky

Domestic players have backed out, and international players have several pre-conditions before they submit expressions of interest for Air India

There has been little good news for the aviation ministry in the last few weeks. First, the country's most profitable airlines IndiGo announced that it was not going to bid for Air India because it was interested only in the international business. Soon after Jet Airways also said no, and SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh reiterated his "too small to bid" explanation. To add to the drama were contradictory reports on Tata-SIA's interest for the state-owned airline; though Singapore Airlines maintained it was open to the idea, the Tata group maintained a stoic silence.

Yet sources involved in the bidding process