The Indian government extended the deadline for submitting bids for Air India's ground handling subsidiary Air India Air Transport Services (AIATSL) by one month to May 16, 2019, The Economic Times has reported.
Last year, the government transferred AIATSL to a new special purpose vehicle, Air India Assets Holding (AIAHL). The new firm also took INR29 billion rupee (UDS418 million) debt held by the flag carrier. AIAHL has been tasked with selling AIATSL and other non-core subsidiaries of Air India in order to repay as much as possible of the carrier's debt.
After the creation of AIAHL, Air India itself remained with INR24 billion rupees (USD346 million) in debt.
AIATSL has been officially for sale since mid-February 2019. It is unclear if the extension of the deadline for Expressions of Interest was caused by the lack of potential investors or other factors.
