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.
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