The Finance Ministry will take up on March 6 the investment proposal of Malaysian budget carrier
AirAsia which seeks to enter India through a joint venture with the Tata Group and another company.
The investment proposal of AirAsia Investment Ltd, Malaysia, has been listed in the agenda of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) meeting scheduled on March 6, sources said.
AirAsia has applied to FIPB to take 49 per cent in a venture with Tata Sons Ltd and Arun Bhatia's Telestra Tradeplace Pvt Ltd, the Malaysian company had said earlier this week.
If cleared by FIPB, this will be the first entry of an foreign carrier in the
domestic airlines after the government liberalised the aviation FDI policy in September.
The new policy allows foreign carriers to invest in Indian airlines.
The new airline is looking to start flying from this year-end with 3-4 planes and an initial investment of about $50 million by the Malaysian budget carrier.
The
proposed joint venture will operate from Chennai and will focus on providing domestic connectivity to Tier-II and Tier-III cities, a statement by the Malaysian carrier from its headquarters in Sepang had said earlier this week.
As per current rules, a carrier must complete five years of domestic operations before becoming eligible for starting overseas flights.
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