Air India sale loses bidder

One of the consortiums bidding for a stake in India's state-owned airline, Air India, has pulled out of talks on the deal.

A spokesman for the Air France-Delta Airlines partnership said the company had decided against the deal.

According to local media, the pull-out leaves just two companies now in the running -- the giant Indian Tata Corporation with Singapore Airlines, and the UK-based Hinduja group.

A forty percent stake is being sold in Air India which has debts estimated at more than eight-hundred-million dollars.

But correspondents say the sale has still attracted interest because the airline has landing rights in key cities in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service