Jet Airways' $500-million deal to take over Air Sahara got a boost on Monday with the home ministry giving security clearance to four Jet officials to be on Air Sahara board. The officials to join Air Sahara as directors are Saroj Dutta, Vijay Kelkar, Javed Akhtar and Victoriano P Dunca, official sources told PTI in New Delhi.
Following the acquisition, Air Sahara had applied for grant of clearances to new members to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to become board members.
The file was forwarded by the civil aviation ministry to the Union home ministry for security clearance, which was granted last week, the sources said. The DGCA also cleared the abovementioned names after security clearance was granted to them, they added.
Jet Airways is likely to operate Air Sahara as a wholly-owned subsidiary till some other regulatory clearances are granted to the acquisition.
While the name of the 100 per cent subsidiary has been finalised, it will be announced only after necessary approvals are received from regulatory bodies, including the DGCA.
The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission has listed the Jet-Sahara case for a final decision in July.
Once security clearance is granted, the reconstituted Air Sahara Board would meet to adopt a resolution to enable Jet operate the airline as its subsidiary, airline sources said.
Ten Jet officials have been working for the past two months with their Air Sahara counterparts to help them streamline sales, ticketing and several managerial issues, they said.
Jet Airways had acquired Air Sahara for an enterprise value of $500 million (about Rs 23 billion) in January and had paid an advance of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) in March-end as part of the buyout.
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