Air India plane crash: Who owns Air India? Airline history and Tata Sons family owner's net worth

The airline has come a full circle, being found in 1932 by JRD Tata, who was an aviation pioneer and the chairman of Tata Sons.

The Tata Group, which was founded in 1868, has its roots in the Bombay cotton boom that was triggered in the late 19th century by the American Civil War. Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, who started the business then, always had his eye on creating an iron and steel company, building a landmark hotel, starting an educational institution, and developing hydroelectric power. This was the start of the Tata dynasty that would grow into a worldwide conglomerate.

The birth of Air India

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata’s grandson JRD Tata found Tata Air Services in 1932. Its first flight was piloted by JRD himself, carrying mail from Karachi to Mumbai in a single-engine De Havilland Puss Moth. It became Air India in 1946, becoming a public limited company when in 1953, after independence, the government of India passed the Air Corporations Act and purchased a majority stake in the carrier from Tata Sons. JRD Tata would continue as chairman until 1977.

Air India through the years

For decades, Air India symbolised Indian aviation on the world stage but became weighed down by financial mismanagement, overstaffing, and bureaucratic inefficiencies. By the 2000s, the airline was suffering major losses, made worse by a 2007 merger with Indian Airlines and competition from private carriers.

In a bid to privatise loss-making public enterprises, the Indian government announced in 2020 that it would sell its stake in Air India. In October 2021, Tata Sons - the same group that had founded the airline - won the bid to buy back Air India for about $2.4bn. The takeover was completed in January 2022.

Air India and the Tata Group

Air India therefore joined the Tata Group’s stable of companies. The group may be best known in the UK for Tata Steel and for its automotive division owning Jaguar Land Rover and Daewoo car marques, but it also has huge companies that are involved in power generation and supply, hotels and tourism, chemical manufacturing and retail and e-commerce.

The Tata family net worth

The Tata family's net worth is estimated to be about $400bn, although they are not known for an ostentatious lifestyle. The Tata Trusts hold more than two-thirds of Tata Sons, the Tata Group’s parent company, and the trusts ensure that a significant portion of the wealth is used for charitable and philanthropic purposes, including funding cancer hospitals and universities.