(india) reasons to join AI NOW...hmmm

[Young_Turk]

thankfully im not even in a situation to think of this possibility for myself...but gentlemen....does anyone still feel that a young CPL holder will have a better life in AI, than any other private carrier?

consider the facts...
1) Career progression...PVT carriers still a chance to become p1 in 4-5 years, AI (and IA).....well.... we can forget thaaaat.

2) aircrafts.....Pvt carriers....you enter their cockpits and literally smell the fresh plastics and leather.....Govt carriers...well you do smell, but its ciggi butts and rotten food lost in the 'pits years ago!

3) pay.........even with the govt airlines perks like insurance, meds and PF, i feel pvt carriers still beat them hands down

4) professionalism....well...there too...Pvt carriers are striving for standards much more than the "babus"

5) International destinations, with jet and sahara starting columbo, Kat., sing., LHR (shortly for s2) and KL shortly, dont see much fun going to kuwait and muscat !! and yeah the "o so happening" Jeddah !!!


6) The WideBody Dream..... looking closer than everbefore for the jet jokeys and looks like Sahara 'pariwar' too may make it with the 767s joining them end of this year....who wants to fly a junk 742 anyways.....

7) the "chikeeeys"....... well well well, KF, Sahara, Jet against AI and IA..........dont get me started on thaaaaaaat !!

....on a serious note....would love well worded rebuttals to this post from IA and AI loyalists..... thats wat a forum is for right?

join in !!
cheers.

[Hairy Chest]

what are you trying to say...Indian pvt airlines are better than govt run? But then every one already knows that.

Looks like you are a Sahara man! Is your boss dead or alive whats the truth ?:O

[aerogull]

What will it take to bring about a change in AI and IA in order for them to be on par or above the private carriers?

aero

[rsoman]

When I was a lil kid a few decades back, they started talking about the merger of AI and IC. Then started the privatisation talks for both and even now they still remain that - talks! and will continue for another couple of decades more! So what does that offer you... Well I guess a small thing called job security!

You must be a greenhorn - but a decade back there wre airlines called Modiluft, Damania Airways, Air Asiatic, East West et all, all of who had quickish deaths!



Professionalism - take a close look at the backgrounds of the senior people in many pvt airlines you will find a lot of themwere taken from IC and AI in the mid 1990s (for Jet esp).No need to say more........

International destinations.go to Air India's website and refresh your geography .And make no mistake .. people like Jet are not flying to Muscat or Jeddah currently, not because the management doesnt like hot climes but rather due to the fact that the current rules prohibit them to do so.


That will do for now!

[A330AV8R]

Looks like youve got it all figured out TURK !

AI & IA things of the past Id say .... !



:E

[Young_Turk]

The concept of PPrune i suppose was to have an open discussion. So in the spirit of things, i just put forward something for all of us to dig our teeth into. i put forth my view (not cuz im in Jet/sahara/ic/ai/ad/kf/...thats pointless) just to start the topic.

its not advise sought or given. so no sentiments will be or are inteded to be hurt. all us pilots know that we're blessed to be flying our iron-birds and getting handsome money for it too.

i was trying to bring out ppl from the govt carriers to put forth their feelings inside the govt sponsered behemothhs...and give us an idea that is there a wave of change inside or they are happy being the way they are....that was the sole intention ....

young turk

[rsoman]

What will it take to bring about a change in AI and IA in order for them to be on par or above the private carriers?
******

What way they are inferior to the private carriers?

Beauty of the cabin crew? Warmth of the samosas?


Age of the aircraft - YES- But the govt of India is to blame for that - not Air India or IC!

Other than that - nothing much - most of the aviation correspondents in the Indian media usually do nothing more tha feed off the press releases of the airline PR departments and enjoy the FAM trips laid out by the airlines. So that way Air India and indian Airlines get some stick (after all their PR departments dont have that lavish budgets like their private sector counterparts) and therefore the private airlines also manage to get by most times with some of their heroics getting unreported.

[Young_Turk]

rsoman, you're pretty right on the PR scams. Pvt Cos. are investing a lot in brand building and promotions.
but isnt this what a company supposed to do? protect it's own reputation and have a smile to greet every customer? we all would like that as a customer wouldnt we? We are working side by side with the hospitality sector and we have to abide by their practices.

As for the cold samosa's and the crew...it just does show the attitude of the employ of the organisation. You said something about Job Security. Yes...there is job security, but with job security comes along it's ugly cousin "COMPLACENCY".... and that "C" word is quite the F word here in Aviation...i hope we all agree.
The passengers are bound to think that if the Cabin crew is so careless and complacent in their routine duties, wonder how the boys on the other side of the cockpit door are? and yeah, the J class passenger also saw one of them come 5 mins to depart with his top shirt button open and yeah...his black tie in his hand....hmmmmmmm.....

[Left Wing]

Have you seen the safety std on AI & IC:yuk: last week on a flt I was seated next to unsecured bags kept on the seat as overhead lockers were full, imagine a windshear or a hard landing and my face is no more Mr. Old Spice!
:mad: :yuk: AI & IC need to wake up as an airline.

[rsoman]

OK

There are still a lot of IC/AI baiters here some of whom appear to have not flown on the airline in recent times and speak as experts based on the horror stories what their grandfathers have passed on from the Dakota days.

Conceeded there are few odd cases even now, not denying that! But as some one who tries to take an objective view of things and having flown fairly frequently in all the major domestic airlines over the last decade, I can confidently say that IC has improved by leaps and bounds.

1 Their safey record is comparable to many others of its size, esp keeping in mind that they still have to fly some pretty antiquated equipemt to some even more antiquated airfields which Jet and Sahara wont touch. After the Alliance Air 737 went down in PAT, there were no fatal crashes.

Yes there has been blemishes, including the A300 wandering off to check its strenth against the boundary wall at DEL, but then so has Jet with incidents like the taxiway landing at GOI and quite a fw more, as does Sahara and even Deccan.

ICs customer support is good, comparable to any prviate airline. I was informed of a rescheduling of an early morning HYD MAA flight about 12 hours ahead (as soon as the flight was rescheduled), while Jet waited patiently for me to dawdle about 45 min a slow moving check in line before telling me about a three hour delay which I understood later, they were aware of , many hours ahead(this was the day after someone went decided to cart off the Localiser at BOM to the scrap yard
for some quick bucks). Yes, ofcourse " sir your travel agent may have forgotten to pass on your contact number etc etc " but having been one myself earlier, there are few things which I do everytime I travel and that is to ensure my contact number is there.


ICs website is as friendly if not better than Jet as regards to practical information, what the passengers want to know! They were also one of the first to introduce online booking and eticketing, not to speak of agressive pricing. Of course with the mentality and antiquated images people carry about IC, half the time people dont even bother to check low fares on IC.

Yet another thing which many of the passengers dont even know. IC is one of the few airlines offering 30KG baggage allowance in economy for their domestic flights, a whole 10 kg more than Jet or Sahara. Very useful for people who have a lot of luggage, esp if two are travelling together.


Despatch reliabilty of IC esp for the A320s is agood as any other operator. On time performance is also comparable with the private carriers.


A few points Just to keep the debate going on....


Cheers