AFP image
New Delhi:
Once it was the Maharaja of the skies, today the erstwhile empire and its king are crumbling.
Air India, the national carrier that was born 77 years ago, when JRD Tata flew on a single-engined De Havilland from Karachi to Bombay, is headed for a dangerous crash landing.
At the heart of the current standoff is a proposal to slash the incentives for executive pilots by 50 per cent.
The airline says global recession in the industry makes cost cutting inevitable.
The pilots say Air India has been mismanaged by government babus for a long time and they are being made to pay for.
The result: Chaos, panic and anger at airports across the county as more than 46 flights were grounded.
With a worried Prime Minister's office overseeing the crisis, the government says lockout is not an option.
But Air India's crisis may not end even if this stand off is resolved.
The airline is operating at a loss of Rs 10 crore every day. And its outstanding loan is over RS 30,000 crore.
The airlines shells out 1500 crore every month just to pay incentive to it 32000 strong workforce.
The much-hyped merger of Indian Airlines and Air India has proven to be a more of disaster rather than creating synergies.
And even new fleet of air crafts have not been able to shaken the Air India image of inefficient airlines.
So worried is the government that the PM made a reference to saving Air India in his Independence Day speech.
As a national carrier Air India does many things that private airlines don't.
It has been on the forefront of civil rescue operations operating special evacuation flights from gulf war in the 90s to Tsunami.
Air India also operates in remote non-profitable routes, like the Northeast, which are not serviced by private carriers.
On line of something like that Air line industry is all about perception, and that Air India's has gone from a reliable perception to an inefficient one.
Air India, the national carrier that was born 77 years ago, when JRD Tata flew on a single-engined De Havilland from Karachi to Bombay, is headed for a dangerous crash landing.
At the heart of the current standoff is a proposal to slash the incentives for executive pilots by 50 per cent.
The airline says global recession in the industry makes cost cutting inevitable.
The pilots say Air India has been mismanaged by government babus for a long time and they are being made to pay for.
The result: Chaos, panic and anger at airports across the county as more than 46 flights were grounded.
With a worried Prime Minister's office overseeing the crisis, the government says lockout is not an option.
But Air India's crisis may not end even if this stand off is resolved.
The airline is operating at a loss of Rs 10 crore every day. And its outstanding loan is over RS 30,000 crore.
The airlines shells out 1500 crore every month just to pay incentive to it 32000 strong workforce.
The much-hyped merger of Indian Airlines and Air India has proven to be a more of disaster rather than creating synergies.
And even new fleet of air crafts have not been able to shaken the Air India image of inefficient airlines.
So worried is the government that the PM made a reference to saving Air India in his Independence Day speech.
As a national carrier Air India does many things that private airlines don't.
It has been on the forefront of civil rescue operations operating special evacuation flights from gulf war in the 90s to Tsunami.
Air India also operates in remote non-profitable routes, like the Northeast, which are not serviced by private carriers.
On line of something like that Air line industry is all about perception, and that Air India's has gone from a reliable perception to an inefficient one.
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