Tackle root cause of Air India mess
The strike by members of the Indian Pilots Guild, which represents Air India’s original international-route pilots, has entered its fourth day, with over 20 flights cancelled and untold hardship to thousands of passengers. While some of the pilots’ grievances appear legitimate, there is simply no justification for a strike when the national carrier has been bailed out with `30,000 crores of taxpayers’ money. It is sheer irresponsibility, or could — as felt in some quarters — there be a hidden agenda at work against the crippled airline? Besides cancelling flights, the airline stopped all international bookings till May 15, and if the strike continues it could drop some international routes. This may benefit some private airlines which failed to make headway in some of the new routes they tried to operate.
The management has derecognised the guild, headed by Nationalist Congress Party leader Jitendra Awhad, as it had done earlier after a strike, only to give it recognition again. One doesn’t know if there is any quid pro quo involved, but it will be disastrous for the airline if it re-recognises the guild again. That body is still living in the past, and thinks it is in a position to dictate who should fly which airline, and demand free first-class seats on the specious grounds that its members need rest before going on duty on the next flight. One of its grievances is that erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots shouldn’t be allowed to fly the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner”. One could understand if this demand was made for cost reasons and not ego — it costs `50 lakhs to train an Indian Airlines pilot to handle the 787, against `12 lakhs for an Air India pilot — at a time when the airline can least afford such wasteful expenditure.
The airline’s management too cannot be absolved for totally mishandling key issues, including destroying the pilots’ morale. It takes 9-10 years for an Air India pilot to rise from co-pilot to pilot, while for erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots this takes just five to six years. The underlying problem behind today’s mess in Air India is that the two airlines’ merger was rushed through hurriedly, without considering their vastly different cultures. It got messed up further by inept managements that never bothered to go into the issues involved, and took unilateral decisions without waiting for the recommendations of the Dharmadhikari Committee which was to facilitate the merger. The real lesson is that it is difficult for an IAS officer to handle a commercial airline, and take the commercial decisions necessary.
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