Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata today tweeted an old photograph of the company's former chairman JRD Tata getting down from an Air India aircraft, minutes after Tata Sons regained control of the government airline - nearly 70 years after its nationalisation.

"The Tata Group winning the bid for Air India is great news! While admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India, it will hopefully provide a very strong market opportunity to the Tata group's presence in the aviation industry," Mr Tata tweeted.

"On an emotional note, Air India, under the leadership of Mr JRD Tata had, at one time, gained the reputation of being one of the most prestigious airlines in the world. Tatas will have the opportunity of regaining the image and reputation it enjoyed in earlier years. Mr JRD Tata would have been overjoyed if he was in our midst today," Mr Tata said in the statement he tweeted.