Aviation minister Ajit Singh believes the government has no choice but privatise Air India. Though commentators have interpreted his comments as off-the-cuff— some said he has already backtracked in the face of resistance by MPs — Singh says he remains firm in his belief in an interview with ET.
Your statement about privatising Air India came out of the blue...
The issue had arisen when the turnaround plan was cleared by the Cabinet. But then Air India was in such a bad shape that the general view was no investor would come forward. Salary up to six months and longer was unpaid, the merger (between Air India and Indian Airlines) was only in name and the management-worker relationship was bad with at least two strikes a year. Air India couldn't pay oil companies and airport dues. There were cases of a plane waiting at the tarmac and an oil company refusing to put oil. This was the situation when I took over. Look at the situation today.
The Dharmadhikari report (recommendations to resolve the airline's perennial HR issues) has been implemented. Only a few issues remain. We have computerised scheduling. Domestic market share has risen. On-time performance, load factor etc have all met targets. We have limited upgrades and free baggage has been disallowed. Loss-making routes have been reduced. But it's a service industry and the airline business is very competitive and capital-intensive.
13/10/13 Binoy Prabhakar/Economic Times
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Your statement about privatising Air India came out of the blue...
The issue had arisen when the turnaround plan was cleared by the Cabinet. But then Air India was in such a bad shape that the general view was no investor would come forward. Salary up to six months and longer was unpaid, the merger (between Air India and Indian Airlines) was only in name and the management-worker relationship was bad with at least two strikes a year. Air India couldn't pay oil companies and airport dues. There were cases of a plane waiting at the tarmac and an oil company refusing to put oil. This was the situation when I took over. Look at the situation today.
The Dharmadhikari report (recommendations to resolve the airline's perennial HR issues) has been implemented. Only a few issues remain. We have computerised scheduling. Domestic market share has risen. On-time performance, load factor etc have all met targets. We have limited upgrades and free baggage has been disallowed. Loss-making routes have been reduced. But it's a service industry and the airline business is very competitive and capital-intensive.
13/10/13 Binoy Prabhakar/Economic Times
