From undisputed king of the skies to an also-ran. No wonder the Maharaja looks frumpy these days. The spectre of yet another strike adds to his worries. Is the age of the national carrier over?
The latest findings offer a partial answer. According to figures from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Air India's market share has slipped to fourth place at 17.1%, with Jet Airways in the lead and Kingfisher and Indigo following. In December, its On-time Performance or punctuality was 65.3%, well behind Jet, Kingfisher and Indigo.
The maharaja seems out of step with the times. Kapil Arora, partner at Ernst & Young, a leading professional services organization, says that a national carrier's chief brand value lies in efficiency, passenger sensitivity and smart business acumen. He says these three qualities matter more than it being wholly or partially government-owned. "But AI's inefficiency in operations, skewed HR practices and demotivated employees leave a lot to be desired. Let's face it, the airline sector is a service industry and the bottomline is the passenger," he says. So where does that leave Air India? As no more than the carrier of choice for politicians and a supplier of jobs, says a civil aviation ministry official. "There is no pragmatic priceline and many freeloaders," he says.
It's a far cry from 1946, the year of Air India's birth. Anticipating independence, a hopeful India needed a national airline to reflect its hopes and dreams. Jitender Bhargava, a former executive director of AI, says the old-style work culture cannot survive in today's "cut-throat world unless you want to commit harakiri". But that's the way Air India has continued to work. "There is little fire in the belly, its sales teams don't visit customers or use new technology to get business. Even its ad announcing a uniform code, which should have targeted the passenger, doesn't reveal how it'll benefit him. AI unions, which held managements to ransom, would have been shown the door in a private carrier."
13/03/11 Shobha John/Times of India
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