Austerity be damned: Bleeding Air India flies journalists to lavish US trip

New Delhi: New Delhi: Although the 10-day long strike cost national carrier, Air India, Rs 150 crores and further crippled any chance of it making any recovery, Civil Aviation ministry on Thursday invited journalists to join the minister on a junket to the United States for the ceremonial delivery of the airline's latest conquest, Boeing 787 jets.
The invite was sent over in the form of an email to media houses on Thursday, wherein Civil Aviation Ministry invited journalists to accompany CA minister Ajit Singh on his visit to Seattle and Charlton, USA, from May 28-31 to get the delivery of Air India's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The icing on the cake being the words: "Travel, accomodation, etc., will be taken care of by us," reads the email.
The invite for the junket came came soon after the release of official stats that showed Air India's market share had plummeted to 17.6 %, making it the 4th largest carrier in terms of passenger volume. Only Goa Air 7.3% and Kingfisher 5.4 % have lesser market share.
18/05/12 Dailybhaskar.com

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Categories: Air India May 2012, Foreign May 2012