Govt to bail out a leaner, trimmer Air India
“Govt to bail out a leaner, trimmer Air India” was the headline on the Times of India news. I have seen Air India in action for quite some time now, and more than a bailout what they really need is a solid “kick out”. In the following few paragraphs I will try to explain why I have come to feel that way.
Let us first compare Air India with other carriers in India right down at the ground level. Private carriers in India are notorious for ridiculous cost cutting and general “pay all the way” attitude. They offer the minimum that can be provided without looking like a transport bus on wings. And yet whenever I have traveled with Air India it felt worse. The staff is mostly oblivious to your needs and have the air of the arrogant host rather than that of a polite service person. The private carriers at least make sure that the staff is not rude to the customer. I guess it is something to do with their perception about who pays their salaries. While the personnel of the private carriers know too well that they wont get paid if there are few fliers day to day – the Air India staff are secure in the knowledge that “government is going to pay anyway”. And the news headline is the best example of this fact.
In-flight service is the best differentiator for the private fliers. They compete with each other to appear courteous while trying to be cost-effective. Every cheap trick is used to make sure that the flier feels more pampered that he actually is. The service on the Air India flights charts the opposite course. They have all the means – but try to behave pricey and least bothered to create any impression, leave alone a good one.
Air India had all the advantage. They had reach and they had leverage. They could cut out original and value for money deals with the help of the different tourism departments within the government. They could make and sell “package holidays” better than anyone else could in India. They had the resources. But even today we rarely see a “package” where Air India is the flight service provider. All the great deals are with the private carriers.
To quote the Civil aviation minister Praful Patel :
The Prime Minister has said that the entire weight of the government is behind Air India. It is a national carrier and it is our pride. But there is a condition that Air India must put its best foot forward. The employees must realise that there is a problem and it is a cumulative problem.
It has been way too many years since privatization started in India, for the employees to realize that “there is a problem and it is a cumulative problem”. They are really beyond repair. And this constant bailing out is not helping at all. When the bailout is guaranteed, their will only be just enough incentive for the “paperwork being done”. Any improvement in the services or the organization as such will just be the figment of the fliers’ imaginations.
The airplanes Air India uses sometimes compete with the crew in looking older and more gray haired ! Sometimes on a rough landing – I used to feel that the plane was just holding on. I imagined the jaded technician going through the motions, without any hope of an honest appraisal of his work. I imagined the contract management teams taking kickbacks and filling the planes with under rated and low quality spares. I imagined the usual government machinery at work. And then one day I met a colleague who had worked in their maintenance teams before. Voila – my imagination was quite spot on ! All he had to say was that he was surprised most the flights could even take off !
Someone please tell our honorable minister that Air India is definitely our national carrier but not our “pride”. Rather, they are a facet we like to collectively hide from outsiders. You will be hard pressed to find an Indian who bragged about the great time he had with Air India. We often tend to forget to mention the fact that we arrived on the national carrier. Its like avoiding to say “I could not get a seat anywhere else !”
The minister added :
Until and unless serious steps are taken to improve the functioning and the financial viability, it would be difficult for the government to continue supporting the airliner
Why not say impossible rather than difficult. Even better - say f*** y** you piece of sh**. And let them drown within the cesspool of collective lethargy and utter corruption. I would support a minimalist “national carrier” with just enough flights for essential services and government personnel. Everything else should be completely privatized. There definitely is a need to monitor standards – but that should apply to all carriers. Anyway I have more often seen private corporations have better standards than the government ones, except a few which are worse – Reliance for example.
When the whole oragnisation is a problem – one should get rid of it. Trying to repair it is like repairing an old run down car – you fix something, and something else falls apart ! That has been quite the case with Air India, for a long time now. The pilots go on strike, the staff go on strike and almost anyone who is someone in the organisation always chooses to throw his/her weight around. Its time we got rid of the “government scale malignant tumor” and start from scratch. Let the idiots fight for their survival. Maybe they just might turn the corner themselves. At worst we will have less delays because of these slow moving monkeys.
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