India, Pakistan find common cause in shoddy national carriers
The two are nuclear-armed, arch rivals often threatening the stability of South Asia and with little common ground, but the sorry state of their national carriers puts India and Pakistan on the same pedestal.
India may be an emerging superpower and Pakistan seemingly always on the brink of a disaster, but the national carriers of the arch-rivals face similar woes.
Both carriers — Air India (AI) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) –- are struggling to stay afloat, battered by financial woes and mismanagement.
Amid a major cash crunch and reeling under heavy losses, Air India and Pakistan International Airlines are struggling to continue operations — a shame for the state-run carriers which often are the defining images of their countries.
“Financially unviable” is the term attached to both carriers by lenders and both airlines have so far just managed to survive on taxpayer money.
The Indian government, battered by allegations of graft, and with the opposition snapping at its heels, can’t even afford to shut the airline down primarily on fears of a political backlash.
While Air India struggles with striking pilots, the state of publicly-listed PIA is worse.
India’s indignation over (un)diplomatic conventions
Forget WikiLeaks, according to India’s Foreign Minister the greatest threat to Indo-U.S. relations are the hands of airport security guards on New Delhi’s diplomatic elite. On Dec 4, Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Meera Shankar was pulled from the interminable airport security queue at Jackson-Evers International Airport in Mississippi and subjected to a full body pat-down by security officials, despite reportedly stressing her diplomatic credentials.
India’s three biggest English newspapers gave the story front-page treatment on Friday, jostling for column inches alongside the continued investigations into a $39 billion telecoms scam and India’s crucial role in the ongoing climate change talks in Cancun.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s view, that the incident was “appropriate under the circumstances“, fuelled a sense of injustice in New Delhi.
“This is unacceptable to India and we are going to take it up with the U.S. government and I hope things will be resolved so that such unpleasant incidents do not recur,” S.M. Krishna, India’s Foreign Minister, was reported as saying in response.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, presumingly taking a break from such pressing issues as thawing talks with nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan and organising the upcoming visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, told reporters on Friday that India was awaiting a report from Washington before taking up the matter with American authorities.
But not everyone is caught up in the hyperbole.
“Just think there is too much fuss and fury wasted on this stuff. And anyway, why should a diplomat be above the normal rules?” prominent Indian broadcast journalist Barkha Dutt tweeted on Friday, as her channel, NDTV, screened U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s promise to respond to Krishna’s complaints prominently in its news bulletins.
its really about quid pro quo – us diplomats go through the same checks as indian ones. but you’re right, non-issue…
The Jet strike: Where does the buck stop?
The distraught foreign national and her wheelchair-bound mother on TV is a compelling argument against the Jet Airways pilots’ strike which has dragged on for four days.
The stand-off between the pilots and the airline management over the sacking of four pilots has forced the airline to cancel hundreds of flights, affecting at least 14,000 passengers since Tuesday.
The public inconvenience caused by such strikes is so pressing that the cause of the strike almost always seems petty.
But striking employees are not always to blame over fragile labour relations.
There have been years when man-days lost due to lockouts have surpassed those caused by employee strikes.
In the current strike, the management as well as the pilots’ union have been pointing fingers.
On Wednesday, the High Court had issued a contempt notice to the pilots for going on ‘mass leave’.
The right to strike is an inalienable right of all workers!
India’s unfriendly skies
- Saritha Rai writes for the GlobalPost, where this article first appeared. -Not long ago, passengers of India’s airlines were spoiled with choices. One promised to treat them like a maharajah. Its passengers were greeted curbside by friendly staff who eagerly took their bags. Once aboard, glamorous female flight attendants waited on the passengers.Another offered meal choices from a list so long that it ran off the page, even on flights that lasted less than two hours. A third had fares so low that thousands of train passengers found it cheaper and faster to fly.”I always felt like royalty when I traveled, it was all so unreal and fantastic,” said Janaki Murali, a frequent flyer who works with one of India’s largest outsourcing firms based in Bangalore.Alas, it was also too good to last.Last week, a grouping of 10 private carriers – including popular upstarts Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways – threatened to stop operations for a day on Aug. 18 to draw attention to their sorry financial plight. A strike, they reasoned, would be a dramatic way to get the attention of the government.And with reason. Private airlines have been a key part of India’s economic boom: they ferry more than half of the country’s passengers.But the carriers are hurting, due to a combination of slower economic growth and government policies. State taxes make jet fuel 60 percent more expensive, one of the highest tax structures in the world. (The government uses the funds to subsidize the cost of others fuels such as kerosene and diesel for poorer Indians.)Private carriers have long lobbied the government to reduce these aviation fuel taxes, as well as high airport charges, so far to no avail.Vijay Mallya, the flamboyant owner of Kingfisher Airlines — which is named after Mallya’s beer brand — said India’s airlines were being “taxed to death.”For now, the crisis has been averted. A public outcry and a tough-talking government forced the private airlines to back off from their strike plan. The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) said that the boycott was canceled “in view of the agitated public sentiment” and the government’s call for a dialogue.But some of the private airlines’ woes have been their own doing. During the aviation boom of the last few years, private airlines have proliferated.Many airlines, including Kingfisher and Jet Airways, have built up excess capacities, even as cut-throat competition and falling demand for air travel have eaten away their profits. The FIA said India’s airlines lost $2 billion during the last financial year.But even as private airlines demanded the government ease some of their financial burden, Delhi is considering handing a $3 billion bailout package to the national carrier, Air India.The bloated state-owned airline is a loss-maker crumpling under its own debt. Air India has 147 aircraft but about 47,000 employees – making it the most profligate employee to aircraft ratio in the world.Meanwhile, private airlines are also pushing the government to ease the current rules that ban foreign carriers from buying a stake in domestic airlines.For many, foreign investment appears the only hope for raising funds, a challenge at a time when the biggest global airlines are themselves cash-strapped.Clearly, the days of big orders for planes, new routes and lavish marketing budgets are over. Right now, India’s airlines are just fighting for survival.For passengers like Janaki Murali, who had quickly gotten used to the premium service and an abundance of flight choices, that is a hard landing indeed.More from Global Post:The Ugly IndianThe Mormons in IndiaCan you outsource God?
I guess India’s PM has conveyed the right signal to the ailing Indian Airlines – that a bailout package will be provided only if IA were to buckle up and trim. Cost cutting measures coupled with cuts in perks and salary for IA’s employees is the way out. Part privatising IA and putting a corporate structure in place would be the way ahead. As Indians, we should all think of travelling of AI wherever possible – I know its not the best one to fly with, but people all over the world prefer their own country’s good, so why not us?
Uneasy numbers stacked against Air India
State-run Air India, which enjoyed a monopoly in the country till the deregulation of the aviation sector in 1991, is besieged by ballooning debt and a litany of woes, pushing it to the brink of collapse.
Unless, of course, the central government steps in to bail out the national flag carrier.
Air India is now seeking a 39.81 billion rupees package from the state, though the airline has been asked to come out with a plan of action to make its existence viable.
The money may come as federal aid in the form of equity and loan.
But some say the airline needs a credible action plan to rescue it.
The civil aviation ministry says the 31,000 workforce should be trimmed to keep it viable. Estimates put the average number of employees per aircraft at nearly 1:230, while as per international standards, an airline needs 1:100 -150 employees.
Others question whether the ministry, which presides over the National Aviation Company Ltd created to run the merged Indian and Air India, can absolve itself from the faultlines posed by the bloated workforce.
Like what they says in west first create a monster and than kill it.
Our Goverment in the name of privatisation and opening up of doors to foreign and private player killer our demon. And create monster situations. I am quite surpirse to hear lots of critical comments on babu and beauracts. I do agree they are all much more responsible for this dibacle. But is the disinvestment is the only solution. Are we now at that point where No national Pride Means to us. National Carrier not only carry national flag but also a symbol of the respective conutry in outlan.
Look at singapore Airlines Emirates, They all run effectivly with gud service and margin of profit with high end counsumer to mid segment consumer too. And more over they are carry the pride of their respectives states.
But how and why all it happens. A interesting article on rediff news published some day back . Give an full details on the revival and resons for the failure of this mehmoth.
Any way we can still take this out from trouble by doing things in positive way and wiling to do. Think of the staffs of this institution. There moral must be at deep earth low . Willing to performe must have died.
We need a revival financially and morally both. A road Map which can not only create revenue but also pride to run this.
A Govt who act like a pimp to foreign and pvt players looks in so hurry that wanna to sell this country assest in fast. Are they nuts who will simply allow thier AIRspace in other hands. Go to any major international AiRport they have dedicated corrider for thier state run AIRLINES and here our company behaved like a step brother or even worse. why Indigo can have 87 points. can’t INDIAN not achive this. They can but need to change with time and keep the essence of Indian in it. I wish We must understand one point at this time. -
If we not preserve our state resources now than this country will be run by DHUGS and OUTLANDER and policis taken in the interest of their monetary benefit. Dont Make this happen other wise next time we will not have Gandhi or Azad to fight for it.
Thought for food- “When we got a cut in our hand, we not cutout entire hand but try to cure the cut and find out the reason to avoid further cut.”
Tears, threats, triumph in Jet Airways layoff drama
I was on a Jet Airways flight from Delhi to Mumbai on Wednesday, the day the airline said it may lay off a further 1,100 employees in addition to the 800 it had retrenched.
Outside the Delhi airport, TV news channel vans had lined up; inside, Jet staff at the counter tried not to meet the sympathetic eyes of passengers. Aboard the aircraft, which had telltale empty seats, newspapers folded into seat pockets had headlines of the layoffs.
I wondered if any of the efficient stewards and stewardesses had been tempted to rip off the covers, or if they were just relieved they were not on probation.
On Thursday, ministers and political parties weighed in on the retrenchments, some calling them illegal, others calling them ill-timed.
Chairman Naresh Goyal, late on Thursday, said he was reinstating the sacked employees because he “could not sleep at night”. The tired protesters cheered.
No one questioned the logic of Jet returning leased aircraft or putting its international expansion on hold to cut costs. So why the furore over the layoffs?
Because the sight of the well-groomed stewards and stewardesses in their smart uniforms, shouting “We want our jobs back”, struck a chord with us.
As a potential shareholder, the best course would have been to give a reasonable severance package to the employees but do whats required to manage costs. Otherwise, the company could go in a downward spiral with higher personnel costs leading to higher operational costs leading to higher ticket fares and as a result less passengers.
This decision makes me not want to be an investor in such a company.
Travel Agents protest with sweets and smile
Taking a cue from a popular 2006 Bollywood film, where the hero follows the path of non-violence to protest against injustice, hundreds of travel agents in India sent sweets to airline offices on Monday to protest against a cut in their commission.
Come October, and most airlines in India will stop paying commissions to travel agents, citing rising operational costs.
This will effectively seal the fate of hundreds of agents who will have to close shop for good.
In India, travel agents get a five percent commission on basic fare from airlines and most of them do not charge passengers any extra money.
On Monday, about 1000 agents of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) dispatched boxes of sweets and flowers to offices of various airlines across the country.
An airline official admitted he was initially clueless to receive so many sweets for taking such a tough decision.
“We decided to follow the path of Mahatma Gandhi, as depicted in a Hindi film and tell the airlines that this is how we will protest everyday,” Anil Punjabi, chairman of TAFI says.
I have witness the sea change in travel pattern in India in past 10 years.
First it is not ONLY 5% commission but airlines offers 30 days credit to agents (No body in above comments want to reveal) but THE End User has to settle account immediately except big clients/accounts. Mind it earlier big accounts were amounting 80% of air-travel now it is merely 30%. An individual travel has grown a lot.
This individual is well informed, tech savvy and has net access all the time from office and home via laptop, mobile etc. and uses credit card almost daily.
Coming back to credit from airlines when individual book the ticket he pays immediately but if he approach for cancellation agents always buy one month time.
I am fed up with these agents casualness with temporary recruited Front Desk eXecutives, frequently I have to tell them short mnemonics to retrieval/insertion of data to airlines database.
The move to cut commission and pass it to pax will increase the profitability of airlines; that are also responsible for their stock holders.
Comment by Pathozade is sheer nonsense. I cannot find anywhere the negative comments against Pakistan except to blame “mismanagment” for both airlines travails and a quote extracted from the news services. I have flown PIA Tues am Karachi/Islamabad, return Friday pm. This is the route all bureaucrats take, Islamabad nearly deserted on week-ends. We all conduct business from just one fortress like hotel up on the slope with beautiful (Shalimar-like) gardens owned by the Arabs. The only truly secure place save for the Presidential Palace. Once, in the company of former finance minister Shaukat, we were ejected from first class because an MP “co-opted” the seats. The owner of Dawn was on the flight. A fight ensued, degenerating into fisticuffs and shoving, and the flight was delayed an hour. Indeed the return Friday night flights are so full that, rules be damned, some passengers stand in the back and in the aisles.. This is reality.. Parveen