No more business class travel for Air India employees

Mumbai: In a bid to boost the revenue, Air India chairman & managing director Arvind Jadhav has curtailed all business class travel by all grades of its employees with immediate effect.
“The company is passing through a critical financial situation and to improve the passenger revenue in the business class/first class, it has been decided that with immediate effect, all categories of employees (serving or retired) and their families/dependents, including the undersigned, will travel only in economy class,” said an official note issued by the Air India chief on Thursday. And to implement the decision, Jadhav is said to have himself travelled by the economy class on his way back from Hyderabad the very same day.
“There is a certain belief in the market that a substantial part of the business class market has been unaffected by the ongoing recession and naturally we’re trying to corner them,” said an Air India official who requested anonymity. Indian carriers — which are expected to post losses of Rs 9,000 crore this fiscal — are trying desperately to corner the premium class travel that would help them immensely increase the revenue.
There were instances on the Mumbai-Delhi route when paying business class passengers were shifted to other flights because Air India officials were occupying business class seats. “It created a perception that business class seats were not available at Air India and thus we have lost passengers on that count,” said an official.
23/05/09 Indian Express

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Categories: NACIL May 2009