Air India completes two years under the Tatas today. The most apt phase to describe this column today would be Two to tango. Two to tango has been referred to by both negative connotations and positive words, depending on the situation. The phrase originated from the song “Two takes to Tango” which was written in 1952, a year before Air India – started by legendary JRD Tata , was nationalised.
Why would I say Two to tango? Air India is a case of two. First the two airlines of the group were put up for sale, Air India and Air India Express. The Tata group had two airlines, viz. Vistara and AirAsia India. The group had two partners, Singapore Airlines and AirAsia Bhd.
As the group decides on consolidation, it is merging two airlines – AirAsia India into Air India Express and Vistara into Air India. When the mergers are complete, there will be two airlines, Air India and Air India Express and this doesn’t end here. The group will have a joint ownership by (you guessed it right) two groups – the Tata group and Singapore Airlines group.
Back to the popular song of the 1950s, the lyrics lists a lot of things that can be done alone but it takes two to perform a tango dance.
You can sail in a ship by yourself,
Take a nap or a nip by yourself.
You can get into debt on your own.
There are lots of things that you can do alone.
(But it)
Takes two to tango
On the positive side, the phrase is often used to indicate the bargain that the two sides have to make to strike a balance and the journey for the company will need that from here on, to ensure that feathers are not ruffled when the merger is on-going, it would need two to tango while deciding the routes between full service and low cost carriers, it will need two to tango to merge Vistara’s FSC routes with Air India’s FSC routes and in the end it will need passengers to have that perfect tango dance!
Will it happen? When will it happen? How will it happen? The two in tango who will watch this keenly are this author and the reader
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