What ails Air India? In the recent days, the air India is in the news for all the wrong reasons. The Minister says that the axe will fall on the senior management and not the staff. I think the better phrase to use will be that the senior management will be the scape goats. The Air India has not started to make losses in the recent years. It has been doing so for decades. The Indian Airlines, now merged with Air India, presented the same story. If no corrective steps could be taken by the management, the fault does not lie entirely on them. They were but the tools while the real management was elsewhere. First of all, Air India operates 167 flights out of which only 13 are profitable. They have been doing so for years. Why? It is said that the new Board will have new persons as advisors, if not members. Will they allow these unprofitable routes to go on. Any prudent businessman, if allowed to do so, will drop the more uneconomical routes and concentrate on those which are profitable or can be turned around. The earlier management could also have done it, had they been allowed to do so. It is not that they were totally unaware of the consequences of operating these flights. Another thing. The closure of non profitable routes will mean closing down of offices in these stations. Will these pink slipped persons be provided for in other stations? If it is done, it will only mean carrying the dead weight around while expecting the Airlines to run faster. It must be realised that one can not run with the hunted and hunt with the hunters. You can not expect to maintain your good will with the employees and still cut the costs. Given this the entire exercise will be a eyewash only. Will new managment go along with this lopsided approach?
- kewal sethi