Pilots' strike: Air India losses mount to Rs.200 crore as crisis continues

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The crisis in Air India raged on for the 11th day Friday and the national carrier's losses mounted to Rs.200 crore as the impasse between agitating pilots and the management continued. 

"Contingency plan is in place. We are operating a bare minimum number of international operations by clubbing flights to destinations in Europe and the US," a senior official of Air India's operations arm said 

"We have lost about Rs.200 crore due to ticket cancellations, unused labour and with a bulk of our Boeing-777 fleet grounded. Our losses per day stand at Rs.13-15 crore," the official said. 

According to the official, the airline has started a special scheme whereby passengers can advance, postpone or cancel their tickets without any extra charges till May 22. 

The airline has deployed the Airbus family of aircraft such as A320, A321 and A330 for international routes. 

It is only operating eight of its 17 Boeing-777 aircraft which are normally manned by the pilots belonging to Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), who are now on strike. 

The development comes a day after Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh called all unions of the airline for talks next week and the Delhi High Court refused to entertain the Indian Pilots Guild's (IPG) plea challenging the court's earlier order restraining the pilots from going on an "illegal strike." 

Ajit Singh Thursday said he would discuss with the unions all outstanding issues such as pay parity and promotion, while a division bench of the high court said contempt proceedings should be started against the pilots. 

The carrier's low-cost international wing, Air India Express, is also bearing the brunt of the agitation. The strike and the subsequent flight cancellations by the airline have disrupted holiday and other travel plans of hundreds of people. 

Trouble started for the airline May 8 when pilot-members of the IPG took mass sick leave, protesting the move to provide Boeing-787 Dreamliner training to pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines. 

The pilots have made four demands which include exclusive flying rights on Boeing 787 aircraft, payment of arrears from 2007 onwards, travel on first class when not working, and the right to be promoted as commanders within six years.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/pilots-strike-air-india-losses-mount-to-rs-200-crore-as-crisis-continues/articleshow/13263020.cms

DGCA suspends Indmar's licence, orders probe on alleged irregularity

MUMBAI: The director general of civil aviation (DGCA) has suspended the licence of Indmar, one of the oldest maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) firms in the country. The regulator has ordered a detailed investigation to probe charges of alleged irregularity in aircraft maintenance slapped on the firm by one of its major corporate client - Forum I.

The order on the suspension of licence was passed on May 9 for an initial period of 15 days. The decision of the director general of civil aviation, EK Bharat Bhushan, comes at a time when concerns in the aviation industry on safety concerns and findings in audit reports of the DGCA are gaining credence. Almost all commercial airlines in the country are found wanting on defined safety parameters.

Indmar, established in 1937, does MRO jobs for 70 aircraft belonging to top corporate houses in the country, including Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Essar.

The licence suspension is for its Delhi base where a Hawker 850 aircraft jointly owned by Jubilant Foods and Bharti with other clients in a fractional ownership model was sent for some modification job required by the manufacturer regarding a seat belt extension.

There are more serious allegations against the firm stating that the pages in its log book that had records of the maintenance job being carried out on the aircraft in question and not actually carried out were torn off from the log book of the firm, sources in the know say, this is viewed as a very serious offence.

Indmar, owned by Mumbai-based businessman Sunil Gupta, is the third-largest MRO company (after Airworks and Deccan Aviation), denied that the issue has something to do with the firm but pinned it on one of its employees, Sanjeev Roy, who was in-charge of its north base.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/dgca-suspends-indmars-licence-orders-probe-on-alleged-irregularity/articleshow/13278413.cms

Air India reaches out to retired pilots as deadlock continues

With no end in sight to the 11-day strike by a section of Air India pilots that has already cost the debt-ladden carrier around Rs 200 crore, the airline management on Friday reached out to retired pilots to fly its planes.

Air India has put in place a contingency plan to operate at least half of its international flights, including one-stop flights to the US. The airline’s executive or management cadre pilots are operating the planes. Seeking additional resources, the management has approached nine retired pilots, who until recently were on contract with the airline

The retired pilots are senior captains from the Boeing 747-400 fleet. Air India flies these planes on Jeddah and Riyadh routes, apart from using them for VVIP flights. “Their contracts were terminated three-four months back, as it felt their services were no longer necessary. However, now the airline management has approached them,” an airline official said, requesting anonymity.

To appoint real estate consultant
Air India was likely to appoint a real estate consultant very soon to prepare a road map for monetising its assets in India and abroad worth Rs 5,000 crore over the next decade, official sources said on Friday.

The move to monetise its assets at an average rate of Rs 500 crore every year for 10 years was part of the financial restructuring plan approved by the government, they said.

Though Air India officials said it plans to appoint the consultant by the end of next month, official sources said the appointment could be expedited and the consultant could be in place within the next two weeks.

In another development, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh is understood to have sought a report from Air India on how its call centre was being run by a company that operates a competing no-frill airline.

Any further action on the issue would be considered depending on the report on the issue from the national carrier.

He added that three of the contacted pilots had agreed to resume flying and had even underwent simulator training. He, however, said this would not make much of an impact as the number of recently retired pilots is few. According to the contingency plan, Air India cut its international flights by almost half. The carrier, which operates over 800 flights a week under normal conditions, has announced that it would be flying only 410 flights a week in the wake of the strike.

Meanwhile, the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), whose over-300 members are on strike, showed no signs of ending the strike despite a Delhi High Court rap, which said the striking pilots could face contempt of court proceedings if they did not report back for duty.

On Thursday a division bench of the Delhi High Court had uphel the single bench’s order that declared the strike as illegal.

The pilots, however, say they are in compliance with the court order. An IPG member said the single bench of the high court had ordered that the pilots could not strike or hold dharnas and agitations inside the airlines' office premises.

The airline has lost revenues worth around Rs 200 crore in 11 days. Air India’s daily revenue is Rs 37 crore, of which international operations accounts for Rs 22 crore. Its international cargo revenue is about Rs 3 crore and international cargo bookings have virtually stopped because of disruption of flights.

Meanwhile, IPG committee members have started going back to Mumbai as their efforts to initiate a dialogue with Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and ministry officials were futile.

‘Cancelling licence akin to chopping artist's hand’
IPG on Friday responded to a Directorate General of Civil Aviation notice on cancellation of pilots licences, saying the notice was bad in law and arbitrary. The response said the notice had been issued in undue haste, and added there was no corelation between the Delhi High Court order and the right to hold licence. IPG said cancellation of a pilot’s licence is akin to chopping an artist's hand. Such an act will destroy the pilots’ careers, it said.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/air-india-reaches-out-to-retired-pilots-as-deadlock-continues/474792/

Harrowing flight for U.N. Rapporteur on Disability

Forced to shift to bad quality wheelchair; ‘paralysed' printed on boarding card

Even as disability rights groups are still struggling with the government and private airlines to ensure dignified travel for differently-abled persons, United Nations Special Rapporteur Shuaib Chalklen has had a harrowing experience with IndiGo on Thursday.

Mr. Chalklen, a South African national, who took flight 6E 176 from Mumbai to Delhi, said that despite his protests, he was forced to transfer from his personal wheelchair to a bad quality airline wheelchair. There was no aisle chair and he was bodily lifted from the wheelchair on to a seat in the first row of the aircraft. However, a family to which the first row was allotted insisted on occupying the allotted seats.

An airline spokesperson said: “We are taking serious action against the IndiGo staff. At IndiGo, we are committed to passenger comfort and safety, and above all, a hassle-free travel experience… We regret the inconvenience caused to Mr. Shuaib Chalklen.”

An airline statement said Mr. Chalklen arrived in his own wheelchair to the check-in counter. As it was slightly larger than the wheelchair IndiGo provided, it couldn't pass through airport security. Mr. Chalklen was requested to move to the ‘IndiGo wheelchair,' however he chose to use his own wheelchair and this was refused by CISF personnel in the security area.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3433534.ece

As Air India bleeds, national carrier organises Maharaja-style trip for Minister, media

Even as the cash-starved Air India grapples with a 10-day strike that has cost it over Rs.150 crore and undermined its recovery plans, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has invited journalists to join him and an entourage of officials to travel to the United States to take delivery of the first of the airline's new long-range Boeing 787 jets.

In an e-mail sent to media organisations on Thursday, the Civil Aviation Ministry invited journalists to accompany Mr. Singh on his “visit to Seattle and Charlston, USA, from May 28-31 to get delivery of [Air India's first] B787 Dreamliner.” “[T]ravel, accommodation, etc., will be taken care of by us,” the e-mail states.

The invitation came hours after the release of official figures which showed that Air India's market share had declined sharply to 17.6 per cent, making it only India's fourth largest airline measured by passengers carried, ahead only of Go Air with 7.3 per cent and Kingfisher 5.4 per cent.

The figures showed that 5.4 per cent of Air India flights were cancelled in April — the highest among all Indian airlines — in a month when it did not face industrial action.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee signalled growing concern at the prospects of the economy — key to the airline's hopes of better times — by announcing he was “going to issue some sort of austerity measures.”

Ironically, the aircraft Mr. Singh is planning to receive has sparked the ongoing strike in Air India. Pilots who worked for the airline prior to its merger with Indian Airlines say they alone should be retrained to fly the jet, as allowing pilots from the erstwhile sister-carrier would jeopardise their career prospects.

In April, Mr. Singh announced approval for a turnaround plan for the airline, saying it was the national carrier's “last chance.” The government gave a Rs.30,000-crore bailout to Air India, in return for its committing itself to meeting specified performance parameters. The bailout was won after the airline registered annual losses of over Rs.7,000 crore, leading to a situation where it could no longer afford to pay staff salaries.

Like other corporate entities, Air India sometimes invites journalists for expenses-paid visits, meant to gather positive publicity for its services.

Earlier, several journalists were flown to the U.S. when Air India's low-cost subsidiary, Air India Express, purchased several Boeing 787-800 aircraft for use on its Gulf routes.

However, the scale and timing of Mr. Singh's trip, coming as it does at a time the airline is cash-strapped, have raised eyebrows even within his Ministry. “The Dreamliner is going to come to India from the U.S. anyway,” a senior official at the Ministry said, “so I cannot understand what need there is for anyone to go there to welcome it into the fleet, especially at a time Air India is surviving hand to mouth.”

The Ministry did not respond to queries from The Hindu why Mr. Singh needed to travel to New York and whether it was appropriate to spend public money on the jamboree.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3429642.ece

Coming, AI’s first dreamliner

NEW DELHI: Air India’s first Dreamliner, Boeing 787, is all set to arrive on June 1.  Captain Soman, in-charge of the Boeing 787, has flown to Seattle from where he will be flying the giant aircraft to India. Dreamliner will make its first trip to Mumbai on June 2, sources in the Air India said.

The object of obsession of both sections of pilots of Air India, has its first set of crew ready to operate. “We are doing domestic destinations so that the crew can fill the minimum requirements of landing/take off before it is launched on the international segment,” the Air India official said.

However, there is little progress on the Air India pilots’ stalemate with the Civil Aviation Ministry.

While a section of both the Air India and the Indian Airlines pilots are on training in Singapore for the Dreamliner, the erstwhile Air India pilots are yet to back down from their stand of not reporting to work.

On Friday, the pilots’ union clarified that they were not in any kind of violation of the Supreme Court order. “The court has clearly stated that we have not done anything for obstruction of justice or to bring disrepute to the court. On the contrary it has asked the management to sit with us and sort out the differences. Don’t resort to contempt proceedings, the court has clearly said. However no one from the management or the ministry is coming forward for talks,” an IPG member said.

Meanwhile, the ministry sources are clear that they are not going to bow to the demands of the pilots’ union. “Heads are set to roll,” a ministry official said. “We are very clear that we can shut our international operations instead of being held at ransom every two months. And terminated pilots who have led the agitation will definitely face the axe,” said a senior ministry official on condition of anonymity.

Air India’s market share stood at 17.6 per cent on statistics released for January-April 2012 data. Indigo’s market share increased to 23.8 per cent while Spicejet stood at 17.7 per cent.

AI’s domestic cancellation rates was also amongst the highest at 5.2 per cent last month, while their on-time performance stood lowest at 79.7 per cent compared to other airlines.

http://expressbuzz.com/nation/Coming-AI%E2%80%99s-first-dreamliner/393119.html

Opposition flays user fees in Delhi, Mumbai airports

New Delhi, May 18:

The user charges imposed on air travellers as well as carriers by private airports in Delhi and Mumbai came under attack in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

The Opposition members alleged “major corruption” in the way the private airports were allowed to collect airport development fees (ADF) and user development fees during discussion on a statutory motion, moved by CPI(M) MP, Mr KN Balagopal, to amend the controversial Rules.

The Airports Authority of India (Major Airports) Development Fees Rules, 2011 permit the private airports to levy Airport Development Fees from passengers.

Moving the motion, Mr Balagopal said the Rules are ultra vires of the Constitution as it does not permit the executive to levy tax on citizens. He urged the Government to amend the Airport Authority of India Act rather than bringing Rules to impose user development fee on passengers.

Corruption

Mr Balagopal alleged that the decision was a result of major corruption and conspiracy. “This is an open case of loot. We cannot allow this. Some auditing should be done. They (private airports) can take profit. It can be 15 per cent or 20 per cent or 25 per cent. But 300 per cent is not a profit. It is not a model of primitive accumulation of capital which started during the colonial period,” he added.

Senior BJP MP, Ms Najma Heptulla, said the Government owed an explanation to the House as to why it did not come before Parliament with the Rules till the matter went to the Supreme Court by private parties. She said there was a provision in the Act to make the rules and charge money. “But, they keep on charging money without any rules! The same thing was also mentioned by the Supreme Court,” she said. She said the Act does not allow the Government to charge fee at the time of embarking and also at the time of disembarking.

Veteran Congress MP, Mr Praveen Rahstrapal, said the House should appreciate that the Airport Regulatory Authority has the power to levy charges. Questioning the exemptions given to private companies he said a company joining the public-private partnership (PPP) mode should also be answerable to the public. He added that the charges should be reasonable, and it should not be taken from the passenger. He said PPP in the country has become a big “P” as in Private.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/government-and-policy/article3432965.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home

Air India slips to No 4 spot as IndiGo, SpiceJet fly high in April

Mumbai, May 18:

Air India's domestic market share shrank in April pushing it to the fourth position among all carriers. The April air traffic data released by the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed troubled carrier Kingfisher slipping to the bottom of the table.

With 28.2 per cent, Jet Airways-JetLite ranked No 1, followed by no-frills airlines IndiGo with 23.8 per cent and SpiceJet (17.7 per cent). Air India's share was down to 17.6 per cent, followed by GoAir (7.3 per cent) and Kingfisher (5.4 per cent).

The key gainers were IndiGo, which saw its seat factor rising from 76.5 per cent in March to 82 per cent in April from 76.5 per cent in March — the highest in the industry — and SpiceJet whose seat factor jumped to 80 per cent (second best in the industry) in April from 73 per cent in March.

Air India also registered the highest flight cancellations in the domestic sector at 5.2 per cent despite having no labour trouble in April. Kingfisher Airlines saw 3.3 per cent flight cancellations. The industry average for cancellations was 1.5 per cent. Low-cost carriers IndiGo and GoAir had the lowest cancellation rate of 0.1 per cent.

Air India's on time performance at six metro airports was the lowest at 79.7 per cent, followed closely by SpiceJet's 80.7 per cent and 81.2 per cent of Kingfisher Airlines.

Air India's passenger load factor, or average percentage of passengers carried on each flight, was the lowest among all other Indian carriers at 70.5 per cent, while IndiGo's was the best with 82 per cent.

Passenger traffic grew by 7.15 per cent between January and April with all domestic airlines carrying around 203.6 lakh passengers as against 190.02 lakh during the corresponding period last year.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/article3433225.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home