Government of India owned airline Air India, which has a debt of around Rs 52,000 crore, is likely to be sold by the end of 2018. “From now, we expect it to take six to eight months for the winning bidders to be announced. And then, it will take another few months for the legal closing and the transfer of assets to actually happen,” said the minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha.

Before putting Air India on sale, the government will split it into four separate companies. The core airline business comprising Air India and Air India Express, the low-fare international carrier, will be offered as one company. Ground handling services and engineering operations that will include maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) activities will constitute the other two firms. Alliance Air, which is the regional arm of AI, will be sold off as a separate company.