AI loaders are frequent flyers in bid to cut costs!

Mumbai: Six passengers flew from Mumbai to Aurangabad and back on an Air India flight every single day for a month. They were not loyal frequent flyers. So who were they? The six flyers were cargo loaders of Air India.
"The airline flew them from Mumbai everyday between June 16 and July 17 as there were no loaders in Aurangabad to handle cargo for flight IC 887,'' said a source. If you are wondering why it was difficult to find loaders in Aurangabad, then the incredible answer is that the airline was desperately trying to cut costs and so could not find any.
It's a case of penny wise, pound foolish. It all started when Air India, to cut costs, started negotiating a price of Rs 90 per loader per day. According to labour laws, the minimum daily wage payable is Rs 190. "Even if the labourer is employed only for an hour or two, the minimum wage has to be paid. So loaders stopped coming to the airport," said the source. Since passengers' bags and cargo goods needed to be loaded and unloaded into the belly of the A319 aircraft which operates between these cities, the airline decided to embark on the novel scheme of flying in the loaders from Mumbai.
25/08/10 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Air India Domestic Aug 2010, airports aug 2010, NACIL Aug 2010