Loss-making Air India flies an empty aircraft

Bad planning continues to hurt the bleeding Maharaja. Last month, Air India operated an empty flight from Riyadh to Mumbai wasting fuel worth crores.
The incident took place on November 28, when the loss-making national carrier flew a 430-seater Boeing 747 without any passengers from Riyadh to Mumbai.
The wide-bodied aircraft reportedly consumed fuel approximately worth Rs. 13.6 lakhs for that single journey and earned no revenue.
The problem began when a Kochi-Riyadh-Mumbai originally scheduled to leave from Kochi airport on November 27 was cancelled because the crew had exhausted the flying duty timings permitted by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA).
A day later, the airline operated the flight carrying only 90 passengers — one fourth of its capacity to the Gulf capital and had no takers on the return flight to Mumbai.
The airline spokesperson said the loss was inevitable because the airline did not want to leave hundreds of passengers away from home on Eid eve.
“We operated a special Mumbai-Riyadh flight to rescue about 300 passengers booked on the cancelled November 27 return flight to Mumbai. The original flight, which was operated from Kochi a day later therefore had no passengers on the return leg,” saidthe airline spokesperson.
Airline sources, however, claimed that some basic planning could have saved the loss.
09/12/09 Satish Kumar/TopNews

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Categories: Air India - International Dec 2009, Foreign Dec 2009, NACIL Dec 2009