A slow take-off

New Delhi: The synergies from the merger of Indian Airlines and Air-India may take their time coming but come they will.
It's all there on paper. The newly merged entity Air-India, which swallowed up domestic carrier Indian, is legally one company with a single board and chief executive officer. But for all practical purposes, the merger is yet to materialise. Top company executives, however, are confident that slowly but steadily, operations of the two will actually be synergized.
For starters, the next winter schedule will see flights being rationalized and timings changed, especially on common routes.
That done, the management hopes to crack the hub and spoke model. The idea is to see to what extent flights of Indian can act as a spoke for AI flights. Also on the cards is a merger of offices abroad which would result in substantial savings . To facilitate the changes, the organistion has been restructured into six distinct business units - the full service airline, a common low cost airline, cargo, MRO, ground service and handling and related businesses, with one functional head for each.
Indeed, some of the benefits of working together are already flowing in. For instance, the new company is able to bargain with suppliers of aviation turbine fuel, now that it's buying a bigger amount. A common IT platform, including a single common call centre, has been designed and will be rolled out in the next 12 months. On the financial front, the accounts of the two carriers and targets for revenue and profits are also being consolidated and should be in place by end October.
14/10/07 Anjuli Bhargava/Business Standard

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Categories: Air India - International Oct 2007, Air india Budget Oct 2007, Air India Domestic Oct 2007, Air India Regional Oct 2007, NACL Oct 2007