Temasek Holdings Pvt. Ltd., Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and the majority shareholder of Singapore Airlines, has backed the airline’s investment in Air India, even as scrutiny grows over its stake in the loss-making Indian carrier.
Air India’s from owners Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. and Singapore Airlines was first reported by Reuters earlier this week. Singapore Airlines owns 25.1% of India’s second-largest airline, with the rest owned by Tata. News of the funding request prompted Kenneth Tiong, lawmaker from Singapore’s opposition Workers’ Party, to urge that Temasek’s funds not to be used to shore up the Indian carrier.
Singapore’s Business Times also ran a commentary arguing that Singapore Airlines could not realistically exit its Air India stake, with Tata the only plausible buyer. It questioned what its 25.1% holding offered beyond a board seat and a share of the losses, while saying the strategic logic of the investment still held.
In a letter to the newspaper responding to that commentary, Juliet Teo, joint head of portfolio development at Temasek Singapore, said Temasek viewed Singapore Airlines’ decision to invest in Air India from a long-term perspective and was supportive of it.
The letter said the transformation of Air India involved complex, multi-year operational and integration challenges, with outcomes shaped by industry developments and external factors such as airspace disruptions, geopolitical developments and fuel price volatility.
“Efforts of this scale take time and are not expected to be linear,” it said.
Temasek did not address whether it would support any capital contribution by Singapore Airlines to Air India.
Air India’s has been under way since Tata took control of the former state-owned carrier in 2022. The erstwhile national flag carrier has been hit by Pakistan’s airspace ban on Indian carriers, disruptions from the US-Israeli war with Iran, and the fallout from a crash last year that killed 260 people.
In the year to 31 March 2026, the airline and its budget unit Air India Express posted , weighing on Singapore Airlines’ profits.
Singapore Airlines said on Thursday its board would carefully consider any requests for additional capital from Air India, taking into consideration the group’s other capital requirements and Air India’s business strategy.