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A report in The Financial Express discusses a 26-point missive sent to national carrier Air India by its boss, the minister of civil aviation Mr. Ashok Gajapathi Raju. Official termed “guidelines” these are practically a diktat. These guidelines were sent after reports of serious concerns at the Star Alliance, the world’s largest grouping of airlines which Air India joined just a month back, that needed changes at Air India would not be implemented due to the impending departure of Mr. Rohit Nandan as Chairman and Managing Director of the airline.
Though airline has missed most turn-around targets under his tenure, there is little doubt Nandan has brought some semblance of order to Air India during his three year tenure at Air India.
(READ ONLINE: Our analysis on Air India missing its turn-around targets by 25%).
Building on the need for continuity of leadership, the ministry had proposed a two year extension to Nandan’s deputation to the carrier from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). The Modi government has shot that proposal down, instead instructing the ministry to find a replacement within the next three months. It would appear the government wants their person at the helm of affairs. and I think this is to placate the Shiv Sena, a powerful ally within the ruling NDA coalition and one who controls most of the employee unions at Air India.
Unionism is largely accepted as a major reason for contributing, if not causing, many of the problems plaguing the airline. The attempts of both Nandan and his predecessor Arvind Jadnav to stand up to the unions is well known. How will a “politically acceptable” CMD of Air India stand-up to the unions? Government knows best, or does it?
In his “guidelines” Raju instructs the airline to fill the premium classes by offering massive discounts of 50% eight hours before the flight. Thank you for devaluing what little was left of the premium classes of Air India Mr. Minister. Why would anyone buy a premium class ticket at full price knowing the fare will be discounted later? Minister knows best, or does he?
The report also quotes another guideline [bsu_quote cite=”The Financial Express, Aug 15, 2014″ url=”http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Govt-asks-Air-India-to-offer-unsold-biz-class-seats-at-50–discount/1279455″]To improve the brand image of the airline which has often been plagued by long delays, the minister also indicated that AI will not hold back any flights for VIPs. “This attitude has to change. We will offer VIPs a free ticket in the next flight instead. If you delay one flight, not only does the brand image get harmed, but there is a ripple effect on the rest of the flights in the day,” a ministry official said. [/bsu_quote]My question is why should that VIP (very important person) [read politicians, bureaucrats, and other “well connected” persons] get any free ticket at all? Just because they are in government and can create a scene? Isn’t it time for the aristocrat mentality to be eradicated? Even god perhaps doesn’t know when this will happen in India.
(READ ONLINE: How India’s modern day aristocrats misuse Air India).
(READ ONLINE: Why the Indian government will not relinquish control of Air India).
What seems to be missing from the diktat is how to deal with the rampant employee indiscipline that plagues the airline. I wish the minister had put a point in his guideline. Any employee violating the rules of the airline will be summarily dismissed; but then he would have to take on the unions and their political benefactor the Shiv Sena.
Government operations are like a blunt knife. All brawn with little finesse. This is demonstrated by the crude benchmarks expected by the government of Air India. The previous civil aviation minister Ajit Singh publicly declared a set of goals for the airline. One of them was improving seat load factor. This was achieved in quick order. The other, on-time performance improvement, was never achieved. Why? you may ask. To get more passengers on planes is easy. Drop the prices. On-time performance requires fundamental improvements at the operational level across all departments and functions. Something near impossible for the government run airline with a “chalta hai” (accept anything) attitude to achieve. None of the benchmarks related to reduction of cost, improvement of productivity, or improvement in employee efficiency.[bsu_quote cite=”Air India operational and financial analysis, Feb 18, 2014″ url=”https://www.bangaloreaviation.com/2014/02/air-india-performance.html”]Astoundingly, Air India still continues to lose almost Rs. 4,000 for each passenger it carries, which is a full 30.5% of its costs, though this is a significant improvement, if you want to call it that, from 2011~12 when the airline lost Rs. 5,642 per passenger, almost 40% of its cost.[/bsu_quote]Mr. Modi’s good days have come, and surprise surprise!!!! Nothing has changed. Your tax-payer Rupees continue to be squandered and we are powerless to prevent it. At least consider of getting a portion of it back by buying Air India first and business class tickets at a discount.
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One of the reasons the govt. doesn’t sell the airline is that they think it can come in handy any time.Lets say for example:In rescue ops in Iran and Syria.Considering that,they can atleast reduce their stake in the airline to upto 25% and can hire professionals to do their jobs without the govt. interference which would be very profitable for them.
Just read ur article about how Shiv Sena wants to control the Aviation Section or Air India.
Whilst it is nice to wax eloquent on ur knowledge of the inside information, pardon me for saying this but it appears to be paid news to prop up this CMD who wants to malign the Shiv Sena.
Sir are u aware that all the Shiv Sena has asked the CMD is to follow the orders pased by both the Hon. High Court , Bombay and the Hon. Supreme Court and DGCA regulations which by common standards is definately not a tall order or misplaced as you would like to maliciously portray in your article
Sir kindly let’s us know if that is wrong .If it is then you are exposed.
It would also have been better if u could have cross checked with the Shiv Sena or any of the Unions before posting this one sided article, whether they had asked that rules are not to be followed. This is nothing but yellow journalism at its best supporting autocratic bosses.
Unions were invisaged by our founding fathers who at the time of independence sought to continue it.
No union will make an unreasonable demand. Neither will any management aquicise to them.
The present Management had washed away crores of rupees of tax payers money knowingly entering into futile litigation and losing in the judicial forum.Sir would u like to adress that issue after taking inputs from your biased sources. Also whilst on the subject can u also dig out how this CMD overlooked the illegal tickets drawn by his brethren.
We hope that you will kindly get ur facts right before making such absurd statements..
I received this exact statement word for word, even the spelling mistakes from someone else.
Regular readers of Bangalore Aviation know me to be no fan of Mr. Nandan nor Air India. And so far as to accuse me of paid news. I do not even make money from this site, so what will some one pay me off.
Sorry but you reek of being a political crony.
Thanks Devesh, for another well written piece about the airline.
The facts, Mr. Nalla, are that unions, management and politicians are all equally liable for Air India’s pathetic current state. If you are making excuses for the airline, YOU are to be held accountable.
If you are calling the opinions in this article “absurd” then you need to go climb back into the hole you came from, because obviously you’re not used to seeing sunlight.
It would have been nice if the mygov.nic.in provides a platform for aviation sector discussions. Union culture is a mess. Developing countries like India do not have to wait for learning lessons on their own. Everyone knows the problems of Unions in the developed world like France and Germany. Govt. should wake up and start to learn from others mistakes on handling these Unions. IT and BPO industries are doing well just because there are no union representations and salary scales. It should all be dealt like person and company and not union and company. General labor ministry or Central HRD should have guidelines for all the sector employees to safeguard employee rights.
I personally do not like the Air India handling of Aircraft. Excessive parking times for aircraft with very poor scheduling. When an aircraft like VT-IWA is down for some time, they are able to run the BOM-MAA-SIN schedule with a single aircraft VT-IWB continuously. If the both aircraft are available they run the single route with two aircraft effectively under utilizing one aircraft. No one answers the questions like “Why a decision is taken without any financial advantage”? They are not even able to run the Hajj schedule with the parked aircraft without involving other private operators.
Forcing current CMD out is a biggest misstep. For a state run entity he is doing better job than SG and 9W leadership. Granted Indian politics are complicated by this is not the time to change leadership.
Finally one thoughtful schedule change on Moscow route though the Australia schedule is a mess.
AI155 DEL1940 – 2320DME 788 x247
AI156 DME0100 – 0855DEL 788 x135
New schedule from 26 Oct 2014 provides better connectivity to Australia and Thailand schedules from Moscow.