New Delhi: Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that the government is determined to privatise flag carrier Air India.
Puri said the first meeting of the alternative mechanism set up for Air India and headed by Home Minister Amit Shah will be held soon.
Subsequent to the first meeting, the minister said that the divestment process will pick up the pace.
Puri said the government is determined to get the airline's privatisation process started and to get the best possible deal in a time-bound manner.
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Speaking on Pakistan's decision to close its airspace and its effect on Indian airlines, the Aviation minister said, the aviation secretary and I keep discussing these issues and we don't want to anticipate the developments and that would also be not correct.
"We were subjected to that experience recently and we will put in place systems, measures and designs to deal with the issues that we face," added Puri.
It is to be noted that Pakistan had closed its airspace to all types of civilian traffic for 15 weeks following the Balakot IAF strikes in February.
Earlier, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told the Parliament that rerouting of Air India had been incurring additional operating cost of about Rs 13 lakhs a day as the flying time increased by by approximately 15 minutes.
