After Air India, owned by the Tata Group, decided to replace its ties with Turkish maintenance firm Turkish Technic over the recent developments, leading Turkish media have raised alarm that Tata Group could possibly snap with another Turkish firm Koç Group, one of its largest industrial conglomerate.

In 2017, the Tata Group's Voltas Limited and Koç Group's Beko had entered into a Joint Venture for consumer durables. Koç is a leading player in Europe and the tie-up with Tata happened after the Turkish firm eyed the huge market in India. In 2020, Voltas and Beko launched their first 'Make in India' factory with Rs 1,286 crore approximately investment in Sanand, Gujarat. In the next few years, the partnership helped Voltas diversify from air conditioners to other durable goods under the banner Voltas Beko.

However, the current crisis cast a shadow over the partnership. According to leading Turkish media Haber Huriyetti, Tata Group may not dissolve the partnership as it would "harm their interests".

Koç Holding is the leading investment holding company in Turkey andits largest industrial and services group in terms of revenues, exports, taxes, number of employees and market capitalisation on the Borsa İstanbul with over 95,000 people.

This comes as Air India said it was looking to send its wide-body planes, whose heavy maintenance is being done by Turkish Technic, to other MRO entities. Airline's CEO Campbell Wilson told PTI that while it could take some time, Air India is "obviously sensitive to the national sentiment" and would take cognisance of what people expected it to do. "With this most recent development, we will look to recalibrate where we sent our aircraft, reduce the amount that we are sending to Turkiye and send it to other places. But that does take some time because aircraft have to be maintained... we are cognisant of recent developments and we will look to adjust our plans," he added.

Two days ago, IndiGo announced that it would terminate its leasing agreement with Turkish Airlines by August 31. Earlier, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had given it ta hree-month extension to avoid disruption in passenger services.