New Delhi: The Tata group and Singapore Airlines are open to bidding for debt-laden Air India, Vistara's CEO Leslie Thng said on Friday.

The two groups that joined hands to set up Vistara are "open to evaluating bids for Air India", Thng said. "We keep an open mind," he said.

There has been speculation that the Tata group, which founded Air India in 1935, was interested in bidding for the airline.

The airline was nationalised in 1953.

A tweak in foreign direct investment rules notified in August precluded the sale of the state-run carrier to any foreign airline.

However, it does allow a joint venture airline registered in India (where the majority shareholding is with Indians) to bid for the airline.

The cabinet took a decision to sell the loss-making national carrier after the airline continued to remain in the red despite some Rs 23,993 crore equity infusion.

It suffered a loss of about Rs 3,587 crore in 2015-16 compared with a loss of Rs 5,859 crore in the previous year.

Air India's woes, which stem from a huge debt overhang of Rs 52,000 crore, worsened following a decision to buy 111 aircraft at a time there was a downturn in the travel market post 2008.

The airline is considered rich picking by many though others feel it could prove to be a drag for the new owners too.

The "Maharaja" as the airline is called has aircraft and engineering assets along with buildings worth about Rs 30,000 crore. Routes and landing slots could fetch more money.

Air India has also seen its market share in the domestic market shrink as low-cost rivals such as IndiGo and SpiceJet have added capacity rapidly.

Its marketshare has come down from 36 per cent a decade ago to 13 per cent now.

Most civil aviation experts also blame an unexplained policy of shutting down existing profitable routes as well as the award of a large number of bilateral flying rights to Gulf city states.

This ensured that Indian travellers on the lucrative European and US routes flew via these hubs rather than take direct AI flights.

Besides Vistara, the Tata group has invested in another joint venture low cost airline with Malaysia's Air Asia.