Airline

Air India and Indian Airlines – sucking in public funds without any end

The Indian airline industry is going through a period of losses, where the competition between the various airline companies has led to severe losses for many of those involved. So, for example, Kingfisher is facing huge problems in running a full service network, and was unable to run the low cost converted Air Deccan. However, a lot of this is also due to the management and decision making within an organization, and if you consider the performance of the others such as Jet, Indigo and GoAir, you would start to think that the power of good management is key. Both Indigo and GoAir are seen as great performers and even in this loss making industry, they have turned in profits in the past.
The airline industry is a very strange industry, where there are huge capital investments in terms of buying new planes, the pilots to fly these planes are also typically very well paid compared to other industries, the portion of fuel in terms of expenses is very high, and you need to keep on flying planes in a tight turnaround to ensure that you are making more money than you are spending. Further, you need to keep your costs down without compromising on the many regulations necessary to ensure the safety of passengers.
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Government takes convenient stand where required about Air India – denies ownership of liabilities

The Government has always had ownership of the national carriers, Air India, and Indian Airlines, and after their merger, the combined entity. In all this time, while private airlines (some of them) have been going from strength to strength, the national airline has been run down to such a condition that if the airline was a private company, it would have been closed down a long time back. So, from time to time, the Government has been pumping in money into what has essentially been a loss making concern, and that too, with a huge quantum of losses. In fact, in some of the Nira Radia tapes, it has been alleged that the effort to ensure that the airline does not recover is part of a deal made with private airlines and the former minister Praful Patel. If that was the case, then one can say that the Minister has succeeded tremendously. Right now, the National Carrier is in such a condition that unless it is given funds by the Government, it cannot run even on an operating level, forget about its plans for spending huge sums of money to buy new planes.
However, at a time when the Government has total control of the airline and has been the primary reason for the terrible condition that the airline is in, it is conveniently shirking its responsibility when it comes to some of the liability that the airline has. This is especially bad when it is considered that these are liabilities in the area of back wages and wage arrears. So, when there is a court case filed by retired cabin crew asking for their wage arrears, the Government has declined to take any responsibility for these liabilities (link to article):
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Air India incident – the airline takes some action

This was probably the last thing that Air India needed. Air India has already been in the news because of the constant losses that have totally eroded its net worth (compared to private airlines that have suffered losses, but are still plodding through). It has been widely reported that these losses are aggravated because of many faulty government policies such as giving away profitable routes, paying huge money for aircraft leases even though these aircraft have not been utilized, and further, Air India has an inflated staff strength that is bleeding the airline, and a combination of politics and unions have prevented some trimming of this expense. And now the Government is looking to pump huge money into the airline for purchase of new aircraft.
The airline hardly needed to make more negative news, and that too news of the weird kind. Imagine being in the air, at top cruising altitude, at midnight, and suddenly you see the polite crew and the pilots fighting with each other, screaming at each other, and even physically fighting with each other. The first reaction would be of sudden bewilderment, followed by apprehension and anxiety. And you would be so thankful when the flight finally landed. And the next day, the papers were all full of this fight, including charges of molestation, harassment, being rude, and so on. And the lady then goes off and files complaints using the various instruments available with her – accusing the pilots of molestation, and going to the National Commission for Women to highlight her plight.
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