Air Indian Airlines (??!!)

The collective Indian heart should weep, looking at the deplorable way in which a good airline has been run into the ground with sinister precision over the last few decades.  The title has been deliberately picked to reflect the utter confusion in which our malfunctioning national airline has chosen to wallow for a long time now.  It is a moot point whether the company is heavily bleeding with losses because of the negative attitude inherent in a labour-union-driven mindset of the average employee - especially when that kind of attitude does not help sell even chewing gum in a competitive environment, leave alone airline seats to customers with choices!  Or have the airline employees, based on track record, developed the temerity to believe that the government will bail them out of any deep hole they dig for themselves, using tax-payer money and therefore do not care? When decently run airline companies all over the world are fluctuating between losses and marginal profits despite much better efforts and work ethics, what chance does our airline have, with its strike-hungry employees?  If it is cabin crew today, it is the pilots tomorrow, with the engineers queuing up for the day after - all clamouring for something or the other.  The fact that collectively they are doing a great disservice to paying customers does not seem to affect this callous bunch in the least, since they have developed pachydermal hides over the years, engaging in strikes with practised ease and impunity.  How many times has one read news reports of passengers being left hung to dry in local or foreign airports by this airline, just because the whim of one set of employees dictated so?? And in comparison, very rarely does one come upon a similar report regarding any other private airline in the country.  Means what?  That the government, which owns the airline, has been guilty of terrible management practices?  Possibly, but there are many other government-owned companies which seem to be running well, without disruption as we have seen in this airline.  Where does that leave the blame?

A cursory glance at the immediate past history tells us that there have been strikes in this airline every single year from 2007 (may be multiple strikes each year!) and this scribe is sure that if we go back further, we will find more of the same.  Why don't the management and employees come together and negotiate a schedule of strikes for the upcoming year and post it in their website, so that customers are inconvenienced less?    Currently the problem is that we know there will be strikes, but we do not know when and that problem could be solved thus.  We can even suggest the summer months for such scheduling, as in schools and courts, because that is when the traffic could be the highest, workload the most and this would ideally be suitable for the employees.  Obviously the professional and seasoned `strikers' will not bite because the `impact' would be lost.  Interestingly many of these strikes in the past few years have been in April, May and June.

I came across one unbelievably entertaining vignette today about this airline.  In 2007 some Canadian organization seemed to have honoured Air India with an award, yes, award!!  That propelled me forward in my seat and I delved a bit deeper to see what the award was about, since any type of award to Air India could only have been 'fixed', in my humble opinion. It transpires that the award was for creating awareness regarding the vanishing ozone layer.  That figures, isn't it??  If your employees take turn to engage in strikes and perform this annual ritual religiously, that would indeed mean lesser flights from Air India; and that would mean lesser depletion of the ozone layer! Ah, Air India got the award for creating this awareness among its own employees, who avidly demonstrated that they know and care about the ozone layer (more than their paying passengers, of course!).

Our government seems to be labouring under the misconception that national pride would be wounded and  the average Indian would be driven to hang his/her head in shame and sadness if this airline is padlocked.  The truth is that by such a forceful action, the government will be providing a golden opportunity to the employees to go somewhere else and `strike' absolutely unfettered and enjoy themselves in life doing what they do best, without causing public nuisance.  Nothing can be more beneficial to the country and the users, from a common man's point of view.  Anyway, one cannot feel any greater shame and sadness in the context of this airline than what has been thrust on us relentlessly over the years, due to the pathetic actions of the employees and management.

Some Indians living overseas in the 80s and 90s would unfailingly take an Air India flight to come home, ignoring many negative attributes that went with the airline, compared to, say, Singapore Airlines.  They simply enjoyed the India-like feel the airline gave them, something akin to a movie trailer.  Good Indian food, some Indian movie, sari-clad hostesses, Hindi, Tamil and classical music channels - unlike today, these were available only on this airline those days - prompted one to put up with rickety seats even in business class,  antiquated projection/audio equipment etc.  Times have changed and the employees, in their ostrich-like state and very busy with `striking work', have not recognized the fact that other airlines offer all these and more now and there is no reason to prefer the `national airline', at its erratic best.

It has come to light that while 400 and odd pilots of the airline are on strike currently, over 70% of the flights are being operated with the remaining pilots and some 100 executive pilots.  The numbers could be here and there, but the point is the airline is way too overstaffed and is groaning under its wage bill, supporting an aging crew all the way to its glorious retirement.  If it is a private organization, the situation would have been drastically different.  But our government, which wants to mark the price of petrol to market in the name of reform, has done just zilch about this ridiculous condition in the airline for many years.

In a recent development, this airline has sought compensation from Boeing for delayed delivery of planes ordered long back.  Ethically speaking, Boeing should not be penalised because it has done a big favour to the airline.  Consider this - if all the planes were delivered on time, this generous airline would have hired some 500 more employees, had a heftier wage bill, a larger group striking work and incremental losses to boot.  The government should see the hollowness of the argument of `opportunity loss' and refrain from pressing their case for compensation.  It is indeed `opportunity loss' for the 500+ employees who did not come on board to enjoy their tenure and perquisites, but then that is not what we are talking about, right?  If the compensation does come through, as it will because it is a commercial transaction, I suggest the airline just specialises in ordering more and more planes and hope for delayed deliveries; that would be more profitable than actually using the planes randomly for transporting paying passengers between strikes!!

When this current strike commenced, someone had circulated a photo of a few Air India planes sitting on the tarmac, with the caption `Saare Zameen Par'!! That perfectly fits this airline and what its striking employees do best -- staying blissfully disrupted and losing pots of money!!