The ministry of corporate affairs approved on Friday the application for merger of Air India and Indian to create a unified national carrier.

With the filing of this approval with the Registrar of Companies, the legal process for the merger have been completed, an official release said.

Meanwhile, the board of Indian and Air India also met in New Delhi, followed by the board meeting of the new entity NACIL, sources said.

V Thulasidas takes over as the chairman and managing director, while Vishwapati Trivedi will be the joint managing director of the new entity, the release said.

Post-merger, the airline would have 112 aircraft, about 34,000 employees and an equity base of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion).

It would operate three brands -- Air India, Air India Express (low-cost) and Air India Cargo. The two state-owned carriers have already converted two Airbus A-310s and a Boeing-737 from passenger carriers to freighters and "a separate cargo airline will be created after the merger".