Air India pilots on strike.
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Fubaliera,
I assume your characterisation of India as the worst country in the world comes from your extensive experience of living and working in other countries?I of course refer to countries like Somalia,Zimbabwe, Iran, Central Asian Republics several countires in South America and so on.If not, then you are an
!
No doubt India has huge issues and is still very much Third World and will probably never be anything better. Make no mistake, it is still an untidy democracy and offers opportunities that the aformentioned countries do not offer.So before we say"worst" anything we must remember the meaning of that word.
Or don't you know English that well? I heard that grade school education in Motown was the "worst".
Alt3
I assume your characterisation of India as the worst country in the world comes from your extensive experience of living and working in other countries?I of course refer to countries like Somalia,Zimbabwe, Iran, Central Asian Republics several countires in South America and so on.If not, then you are an
!No doubt India has huge issues and is still very much Third World and will probably never be anything better. Make no mistake, it is still an untidy democracy and offers opportunities that the aformentioned countries do not offer.So before we say"worst" anything we must remember the meaning of that word.
Or don't you know English that well? I heard that grade school education in Motown was the "worst".
Alt3
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India is the worst country in the world in every aspect, but gotta give it to the pilots their, they stand up for their rights.
U deserve a
OR A 
OR A 
Guys I leave the choice to you..
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India is the worst country in the world in every aspect, but gotta give it to the pilots their, they stand up for their rights.
I am glad you could spell 'every', and really impressed that you could spell 'aspect', after all its a six letter word and you have demonstrated great acumen by using at least one seven letter word. But baby you need to ask your daddy what these two words mean when they are placed next to each other.
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recall
Back to the strike,whats the latest.
On TV,they r reporting that govt. has confirmed no cuts until further discussions with the executive pilots but pilots r not resuming flying duties...
On TV,they r reporting that govt. has confirmed no cuts until further discussions with the executive pilots but pilots r not resuming flying duties...
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Strike Status
It seems the pilots are back on the job after PP gave his assurances
AI pilots end strike, will resume work today
PP was on TV last night doing the math that showed a cut from 6.5 lakhs to 3.12 lakhs. Steep cut, but yes one can still live in India on that salary.
However as speedfreak put his maths in earlier it seems a little dismal if it moves down the ranks. So will have to take the entire thing with a pinch of salt.
Seems to be labor unrest across the country in many fields
Pricol employees beat HR manager to death
Jet Air
4000 Doctors on strike over pay
IIT Profs on strike
AI pilots on Strike
Did some one say "Karat and Stick"
Smells a little red in color with all this crap going on. Sour grapes I say...........Mind it.
Jimmy
Loved your english lesson to FB. Be careful his daddy does not come after you in his Pimp Mobile
AI pilots end strike, will resume work today
PP was on TV last night doing the math that showed a cut from 6.5 lakhs to 3.12 lakhs. Steep cut, but yes one can still live in India on that salary.
However as speedfreak put his maths in earlier it seems a little dismal if it moves down the ranks. So will have to take the entire thing with a pinch of salt.
Seems to be labor unrest across the country in many fields
Pricol employees beat HR manager to death
Jet Air
4000 Doctors on strike over pay
IIT Profs on strike
AI pilots on Strike
Did some one say "Karat and Stick"
Smells a little red in color with all this crap going on. Sour grapes I say...........Mind it.Jimmy
Loved your english lesson to FB. Be careful his daddy does not come after you in his Pimp Mobile
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India is the worst country in the world in every aspect
India is the worst country in the world in every aspect
Please elaborate so we can make your next visit more pleasant.
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Indian Pilot Dead
Indian pilot found mysteriously killed in Negambo
A 50-year-old Indian pilot working for Sri Lankan Airlines was found brutally murdered and hanging from the staircase of his house in Negombo this morning, police spokesman Senior DIG Nimal Mediwake said. Investigations into the murder are underway.
So sorry to interrupt your valued arguments here dear Ladies and Gentlemen.......you were given the above sad news but I haven't seen a pause, condolence nor prayer for a departed ex-colleague/comrade on this forum. Doesn't show well of you.....What a shame
Indian pilot found mysteriously killed in Negambo
A 50-year-old Indian pilot working for Sri Lankan Airlines was found brutally murdered and hanging from the staircase of his house in Negombo this morning, police spokesman Senior DIG Nimal Mediwake said. Investigations into the murder are underway.So sorry to interrupt your valued arguments here dear Ladies and Gentlemen.......you were given the above sad news but I haven't seen a pause, condolence nor prayer for a departed ex-colleague/comrade on this forum. Doesn't show well of you.....What a shame
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been paid only the basic. thats an obligation. they cant deny that. basic ranges from 7000 - 12000 from first officer to commander. allowances for the month of july and august are pending. and apparently air india and indian airlines follow different pay schedules. apart from them getting more, air india have been paid july allowances 10 days back. however, indian airlines is yet to get them.
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As per "media reports" 
Exec pilots were solicited to move to private airlines. They all refused, or so it seems. (once again media report so pinch of salt). Assuming this is true.........
WHY??????????
I am sure they will get not only a good packet but also be able to get a good deal as the privates struggle to comply with DGCA ruling for 2010.
Just curious as the issue seemed to be about money and job security.
Exec pilots were solicited to move to private airlines. They all refused, or so it seems. (once again media report so pinch of salt). Assuming this is true.........WHY??????????
I am sure they will get not only a good packet but also be able to get a good deal as the privates struggle to comply with DGCA ruling for 2010.
Just curious as the issue seemed to be about money and job security.
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The Air India Pilots Strike: A Pilots Perspective
The pilots strike was the tip of the iceberg and a culmination of months
of frustration, anger,disappointment and despair of all the Air India
employees.
By blaming employees squarely for AI's losses and making them suffer
financially, the minister and his lackey the CMD have only attacked the very
people on the frontline who deliver the airlines core product.Somewhat akin
to a super speciality hospital slashing the salaries of its top notch
surgeons just because the trustees have been stealing money and scuttling
the ship from within, to benefit rivals ! Employees have had no say in the
various decisions taken by the ministry and its babus in the many policies
that have systematically destroyed the airline.
The timing of the pay cut ( the last straw in a string of ridiculous so
called cost cutting measures) is believed to have the underlying intention
of provoking a strike so that rivals like Jet Airways can benefit from the
spill over of passengers during the festive season. The hasitily withdrawn
decision by the CMD to "lock out" the airline and later,to stop taking
bookings until the 15th of October drives home the point. Also, October is
the muslim Haj season and certain individuals could even benefit immensely
by outsourcing leased charters for those flights to Medina.
The various unions had given a huge string of practical, tangible sugestions
to reduce wasteful expenditure that would have saved hundreds of millions of
dollars but these were completely ignored.As we speak, the CMD is planning
to open an economically unviable aviation academy in North East India at
Shillong, where Air India does not even operate flights!!
**
*Below is a list of some of the hidden factors that have led to the
crisis.These are an Indian pilot's point of view and all the information is
factually correct.*
**
*1)Artificially Created Pilot Shortage*: During the tenure of Mr
V.Thulasidas as the CMD, brand new aircraft worth billions of dollars, both
Boeing777s & 737s were kept parked on the ground for months due to an acute
shortage of Pilots (Captains)- resulting in hundreds of crores of losses
every month. This in spite of having hundreds of qualified Indian Co-pilots
who could have been promoted to fill vacancies of Captains but were not. Who
was responsible for the stoppage of training for these co-pilots preventing
their promotions - thus resulting in the free hand given to officials in Air
India, DGCA & the Ministry of Civil Aviation to give the go ahead to recruit
Expatriates?
*2)Preferential Treatment of Foreigners*: How is it today that the cash
strapped airline can pay foreign pilots ( some 180 + in number) their full
salaries on time and not retrench even a single one even though it claims
its own national pilots are "underutilized" and the company has not been
paying 31000 Indian employees their full salaries since August ?
The CMD has reduced the effective pay of Indian national pilots by up to 70
percent WITHOUT ANY PRIOR WARNING OR DISCUSSION. *Why not of foreigners who
sometimes work only 3 weeks,are given 8 days compulsory off and given
business class tickets to go home EACH MONTH and are, in some cases paid
more than what their Indian counterparts were earning prior to the salary
cut !** *
**
*All this, inspite of the fact that all foreign pilots are junior to Indians in seniority !* ( I have nothing PERSONAL against any expat and some of the ones I have flown with are not only good professionals but also good human beings. The point I am making is one of home grown discrimination in my own country )
Why are expat pilots given preferential treatment over Indians even at the
cost of safety - by allowing them to be certified by foreign medical boards
with medical standards that are far lower than those prescribed by the
Indian DGCA for Indian pilots? There are foreigners flying in Air India who
would have failed even Air India's own company pre employment medical tests.
*Since when have foreigners become more important in a Government run
company ?*
Also, why are expats hired through placement firms ONLY and not through
direct recruitment as is done by the world's major carriers? Was any global
tender floated to approve such placement firms? Why are ( some) foreign pilots with dubious qualifications( a B777 captain who I know personally, joined AI without a single hour as PIC ,fudged his log book, proudly "created" a few hundred hours extra prior to joining and got a rubber seal made to certify his logbook) being recruited in droves through recruitment firms even though Air India's Indian pilots are grossly underutilized?
*3)Massive Tax Breaks
Expats are paid their salaries through their
placement firms in offshore destinations. Thus hundreds of crores worth of
income tax is denied to the Indian exchequer. Ironically the CMD and his
Minister want a bailout to save these very jobs !!
*4) ILL Conceived Merger of two airlines: *Who idea was it to merge the
erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines and who chose the firm Accenture as
a consultant for the merger and why have their recommendations not been made
public?
Whose idea was it to merge erstwhile Air India with Indian Airlines- both of
which without resolving contentious issues such as route rationalisation,
employee pay and seniority? Why were the liabilities of Indian Airlines,
Vayudoot and Alliance Air worth thousands of crores slapped onto AI when it
had just begun to make operating profits?
*5) Unjustified Fleet Acquisition*: Why was fleet expansion not halted when
passenger loads began to drop? Why were so many aircraft ( 110 ) purchased
without a concrete deployment plan and inadquate passenger loads? Why were aircraft deliveries not cancelled or defered ? Who benefited from the
aircraft acquisition ?
*6) Dubious choice of aircraft:
a) Who choose a smaller capacity aircraft ( Boeing 737) when Airbus A310s
were already carrying full loads on Gulf Sectors?
In any case, why were Boeing 737s chosen over the Airbus A320 for which
erstwhile Indian Airlines already had the infrastructure? Both are the same
category of aircraft.
b) Ordering the Boeing 777 in only two variants -i.e. LR & 300ER. Was any
feasibility study carried out? The fuel cost of the LR is enormous; we have
a disadvantage in comparison to EK, QR or SQ where fuel costs are cheaper.
Filling up a 300 ER is also no easy task! To add to the confusion, IC got
the A 330 and that too only two of them. *Now we have a merged entity with 9
types of aircraft. Boeing 744,777,787,737,310,320,330, plus Alliance Air
which is also a part of the merged entity with Boeing 737-200 & the CRJ.
What is going on here? Individual officials (including bureaucrats in the
ministry) need to be questioned about such decisions with justifications.**
*
*7)Aircraft Route Deployment*: Whose idea was it to start nonstop India to
USA Long Range flights with higher priced tickets only to result in empty
aircraft flying? For over a year we had excess capacity to the New York area
with 2 Boeing 777 Long Range aircraft. There was no feeder plan in place to
fill these planes. After about 2 yrs of flying empty planes, the resultant
LOSSES will take many years to overcome. Again individual officials in the
Ministry and Airline need to be taken to task for such wrong commercial
decisions.
We operate a small Airbus A319 to Singapore and Airbus A 320 on the India
Saudi Arabia sector with reduced loads, sacrificing revenue, as the aircraft
are unable to carry too much. Who takes such decisions?
*8) Randomly Opening & Closing down Stations* .This costs money, Los Angeles
(LAX) has been shut, now we think SFO( San Francisco) is the place to go !
Earlier we had shut down Frankfurt (FRA), Manchester (MAN), Rome, Zurich and
Geneva. We had to pay heavy social / severance costs to the retrenched
employees only to open up Frankfurt (FRA) & now we think it's the right spot
for our European HUB! FRA as a hub is going to only benefit Lufthansa
(LH).We should have opened a hub in a 2 tier city such as Dusseldorf,
Berlin, Hamburg as from these places Lufthansa would have limited
connectivity on the Trans Atlantic sector and we would have got their
passengers. For FRA we will only be getting their spill over loads as they
have worldwide connectivity.
*9)Closing down stations to benefit Jet Airways*: We closed down Abu Dhabi
AUH, Doha DOH, Bahrain BAH, Muscat MCT only weeks before Jet Airways started
operation to these stations. Then we shut Bangkok BKK. Only AI Express
operates to these places with very small aircraft. It would be interesting
to read the reports justifying such steps.
** *10) Dry Leased Aircraft *- Once we started getting delivery of our
Boeing 777s, some of the earlier dry leased aircraft stood parked due lack
of Pilots. We did not even return the dry leased Boeing 777s, so that our
aircraft could fly. Was there no exit clause in the lease contract? Who
signed this deal without keeping an exit option for AI?
*11)Cargo Aircraft*: Our Airbus A310 dry leases were perfectly timed so that
they could be replaced with the arrival of the brand new Boeing 787 & so was
the conversion of our company's own Airbus 310 to freighter.
However it became well known that the Boeing 787 is long delayed, in spite
of this we went ahead & sent our Airbus 310's for freighter conversion. As
if converting 2 of them & not optimally utilising them was not enough, we
went ahead & converted 2 more, only to park them on the ground. Since the
past 8 months we have only been operating 3 flights a week to Frankfurt FRA,
which is in fact a utilization of only ONE aircraft!
Singapore Air SQ, Cathay CX, KA, UPS all other companies operate large
Boeing747-400 freighters to India but our Cargo dept with a dedicated Exec
Director has not been able to find destinations for a medium capacity A310
aircraft. Since we did not get the Boeing 787's on time, converting the
Airbus A310s reduced our passenger capacity for medium haul routes such as
Singapore & Saudi Arabia and now we have deployed small Airbus 320/319s with
severe payload restrictions on these routes. Who gave the go -ahead for the
last two Airbus A310's to be sent for cargo conversion? What was the
business plan?
*And now,as of two weeks ago, the company has shut down international
freighter operations completely !!*
*12) Toronto (YYZ)* ops: Only last month AI increased its frequency to YYZ,
7 flts a week. We operated empty aircraft for 2 weeks only to start
cancelling flights at random. Only one month after the announcement we now
operate only 3 to 4 flts. The flights cancelled are not day specific but at
random, thereby confusing the passengers even more. Our methodology of
introducing flights is to accept the fact that the aircraft will run empty
for 6-8 months. Over that period the public will get to know that AI is optg
& hopefully seats would start filling up! With this strategy we need to
close our sales & marketing departments. Globally airlines plan their
schedules 4-6 months early so that the sales team can then market the
product, advertise, and hold seat sales but we have no such concept. A case
in point for the CMD is SFO ops due to start in less than 5 months, we are
not sure if it will be daily or 4 times a week.When will the flight be put
on the ticket sales system?
*13) Employee Morale*: At its lowest. What has the CMD achieved by
victimising the same people whose support is essential to deliver his
product efficiently ,safely and on time ( i.e highly skilled pilots ) ?
By not allowing senior company officials, pilots and engineers business or
first class travel privileges that have been earned over years of hard work?
All staff tickets are issued on an unconfirmed Subject to Load Basis i.e.
seats are released only if there are no revenue passengers travelling. There
is NO loss to the company nor its passengers as these staff tickets are
unconfirmed and seats cannot be blocked. In fact, the CMDs policy of forcing
Staff on Duty to travel on economy seats is displacing many fare paying
economy class passengers since business class seats are often empty and
Staff who would have normally travelled on business class seats are now
occupying economy class seats.
Ironically, the CMD himself gave his own policy a go-by by sneakily
travelling on First Class on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Mumbai
when an Air India flight was available! Who paid the tax for that flight?
Air India of course! And he repeated this again when he travelled from India
to Kuala Lumpur.
As if on cue, the Civil Aviation Secretary Nambiar bought his wife the
cheapest economy class ticket on an Air India flight and got her upgraded to
First Class through the office of his IAS counterpart in Air India- the CMD
himself!
And now they've unilaterally reduced the salaries of senior pilots by upto
70 percent without ANY prior discussion or warning !
*14) HRD Issues and Legal Costs*:Has anyone found out that the legal bills
of the company runs into crores? What are the cases pending with the
employees? Is it justified to spend crores of rupees on these legal
disputes & harass the employees? What happened to the Grievance Redressal
System within the company, as most issues could have been resolved there
without any costs? Which are the legal firms that benefit the most
monetarily from Air India?
*15) Artificially escalated pilot training costs *: Boeing 777 simulator
training costs us a fortune. Why does Air India not own Boeing 777
simulators whereas Jet Airways does? Who is causing the delay in acquiring
our own simulators? The Airbus 310 simulator has been declared redundant
because we do not want to pay the simulator engineers a higher salary. Who
gains from the contracts for outsourcing such training? What is the cost of
hiring the Jet Airways/Emirates simulators vs. having our own set up?
*16) Double StandardsThe CMD continues to live in one of the most
expensive and posh apartment complexes in Mumbai. He is a direct benefactor
of the Sixth Pay commission in a recession bound economy and travels in
First Class through a covert interline ticket arrangement in other
airlines.Does not charity begin at home?
*Why are the erstwhile and existing Minister of Civil Aviation, Secretaries
of Civil Aviation and former CMDs not held accountable for all these acts of
omission and commission?*
of frustration, anger,disappointment and despair of all the Air India
employees.
By blaming employees squarely for AI's losses and making them suffer
financially, the minister and his lackey the CMD have only attacked the very
people on the frontline who deliver the airlines core product.Somewhat akin
to a super speciality hospital slashing the salaries of its top notch
surgeons just because the trustees have been stealing money and scuttling
the ship from within, to benefit rivals ! Employees have had no say in the
various decisions taken by the ministry and its babus in the many policies
that have systematically destroyed the airline.
The timing of the pay cut ( the last straw in a string of ridiculous so
called cost cutting measures) is believed to have the underlying intention
of provoking a strike so that rivals like Jet Airways can benefit from the
spill over of passengers during the festive season. The hasitily withdrawn
decision by the CMD to "lock out" the airline and later,to stop taking
bookings until the 15th of October drives home the point. Also, October is
the muslim Haj season and certain individuals could even benefit immensely
by outsourcing leased charters for those flights to Medina.
The various unions had given a huge string of practical, tangible sugestions
to reduce wasteful expenditure that would have saved hundreds of millions of
dollars but these were completely ignored.As we speak, the CMD is planning
to open an economically unviable aviation academy in North East India at
Shillong, where Air India does not even operate flights!!
**
*Below is a list of some of the hidden factors that have led to the
crisis.These are an Indian pilot's point of view and all the information is
factually correct.*
**
*1)Artificially Created Pilot Shortage*: During the tenure of Mr
V.Thulasidas as the CMD, brand new aircraft worth billions of dollars, both
Boeing777s & 737s were kept parked on the ground for months due to an acute
shortage of Pilots (Captains)- resulting in hundreds of crores of losses
every month. This in spite of having hundreds of qualified Indian Co-pilots
who could have been promoted to fill vacancies of Captains but were not. Who
was responsible for the stoppage of training for these co-pilots preventing
their promotions - thus resulting in the free hand given to officials in Air
India, DGCA & the Ministry of Civil Aviation to give the go ahead to recruit
Expatriates?
*2)Preferential Treatment of Foreigners*: How is it today that the cash
strapped airline can pay foreign pilots ( some 180 + in number) their full
salaries on time and not retrench even a single one even though it claims
its own national pilots are "underutilized" and the company has not been
paying 31000 Indian employees their full salaries since August ?
The CMD has reduced the effective pay of Indian national pilots by up to 70
percent WITHOUT ANY PRIOR WARNING OR DISCUSSION. *Why not of foreigners who
sometimes work only 3 weeks,are given 8 days compulsory off and given
business class tickets to go home EACH MONTH and are, in some cases paid
more than what their Indian counterparts were earning prior to the salary
cut !** *
**
*All this, inspite of the fact that all foreign pilots are junior to Indians in seniority !* ( I have nothing PERSONAL against any expat and some of the ones I have flown with are not only good professionals but also good human beings. The point I am making is one of home grown discrimination in my own country )
Why are expat pilots given preferential treatment over Indians even at the
cost of safety - by allowing them to be certified by foreign medical boards
with medical standards that are far lower than those prescribed by the
Indian DGCA for Indian pilots? There are foreigners flying in Air India who
would have failed even Air India's own company pre employment medical tests.
*Since when have foreigners become more important in a Government run
company ?*
Also, why are expats hired through placement firms ONLY and not through
direct recruitment as is done by the world's major carriers? Was any global
tender floated to approve such placement firms? Why are ( some) foreign pilots with dubious qualifications( a B777 captain who I know personally, joined AI without a single hour as PIC ,fudged his log book, proudly "created" a few hundred hours extra prior to joining and got a rubber seal made to certify his logbook) being recruited in droves through recruitment firms even though Air India's Indian pilots are grossly underutilized?
*3)Massive Tax Breaks
Expats are paid their salaries through theirplacement firms in offshore destinations. Thus hundreds of crores worth of
income tax is denied to the Indian exchequer. Ironically the CMD and his
Minister want a bailout to save these very jobs !!
*4) ILL Conceived Merger of two airlines: *Who idea was it to merge the
erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines and who chose the firm Accenture as
a consultant for the merger and why have their recommendations not been made
public?
Whose idea was it to merge erstwhile Air India with Indian Airlines- both of
which without resolving contentious issues such as route rationalisation,
employee pay and seniority? Why were the liabilities of Indian Airlines,
Vayudoot and Alliance Air worth thousands of crores slapped onto AI when it
had just begun to make operating profits?
*5) Unjustified Fleet Acquisition*: Why was fleet expansion not halted when
passenger loads began to drop? Why were so many aircraft ( 110 ) purchased
without a concrete deployment plan and inadquate passenger loads? Why were aircraft deliveries not cancelled or defered ? Who benefited from the
aircraft acquisition ?
*6) Dubious choice of aircraft
:a) Who choose a smaller capacity aircraft ( Boeing 737) when Airbus A310s
were already carrying full loads on Gulf Sectors?
In any case, why were Boeing 737s chosen over the Airbus A320 for which
erstwhile Indian Airlines already had the infrastructure? Both are the same
category of aircraft.
b) Ordering the Boeing 777 in only two variants -i.e. LR & 300ER. Was any
feasibility study carried out? The fuel cost of the LR is enormous; we have
a disadvantage in comparison to EK, QR or SQ where fuel costs are cheaper.
Filling up a 300 ER is also no easy task! To add to the confusion, IC got
the A 330 and that too only two of them. *Now we have a merged entity with 9
types of aircraft. Boeing 744,777,787,737,310,320,330, plus Alliance Air
which is also a part of the merged entity with Boeing 737-200 & the CRJ.
What is going on here? Individual officials (including bureaucrats in the
ministry) need to be questioned about such decisions with justifications.**
*
*7)Aircraft Route Deployment*: Whose idea was it to start nonstop India to
USA Long Range flights with higher priced tickets only to result in empty
aircraft flying? For over a year we had excess capacity to the New York area
with 2 Boeing 777 Long Range aircraft. There was no feeder plan in place to
fill these planes. After about 2 yrs of flying empty planes, the resultant
LOSSES will take many years to overcome. Again individual officials in the
Ministry and Airline need to be taken to task for such wrong commercial
decisions.
We operate a small Airbus A319 to Singapore and Airbus A 320 on the India
Saudi Arabia sector with reduced loads, sacrificing revenue, as the aircraft
are unable to carry too much. Who takes such decisions?
*8) Randomly Opening & Closing down Stations* .This costs money, Los Angeles
(LAX) has been shut, now we think SFO( San Francisco) is the place to go !
Earlier we had shut down Frankfurt (FRA), Manchester (MAN), Rome, Zurich and
Geneva. We had to pay heavy social / severance costs to the retrenched
employees only to open up Frankfurt (FRA) & now we think it's the right spot
for our European HUB! FRA as a hub is going to only benefit Lufthansa
(LH).We should have opened a hub in a 2 tier city such as Dusseldorf,
Berlin, Hamburg as from these places Lufthansa would have limited
connectivity on the Trans Atlantic sector and we would have got their
passengers. For FRA we will only be getting their spill over loads as they
have worldwide connectivity.
*9)Closing down stations to benefit Jet Airways*: We closed down Abu Dhabi
AUH, Doha DOH, Bahrain BAH, Muscat MCT only weeks before Jet Airways started
operation to these stations. Then we shut Bangkok BKK. Only AI Express
operates to these places with very small aircraft. It would be interesting
to read the reports justifying such steps.
** *10) Dry Leased Aircraft *- Once we started getting delivery of our
Boeing 777s, some of the earlier dry leased aircraft stood parked due lack
of Pilots. We did not even return the dry leased Boeing 777s, so that our
aircraft could fly. Was there no exit clause in the lease contract? Who
signed this deal without keeping an exit option for AI?
*11)Cargo Aircraft*: Our Airbus A310 dry leases were perfectly timed so that
they could be replaced with the arrival of the brand new Boeing 787 & so was
the conversion of our company's own Airbus 310 to freighter.
However it became well known that the Boeing 787 is long delayed, in spite
of this we went ahead & sent our Airbus 310's for freighter conversion. As
if converting 2 of them & not optimally utilising them was not enough, we
went ahead & converted 2 more, only to park them on the ground. Since the
past 8 months we have only been operating 3 flights a week to Frankfurt FRA,
which is in fact a utilization of only ONE aircraft!
Singapore Air SQ, Cathay CX, KA, UPS all other companies operate large
Boeing747-400 freighters to India but our Cargo dept with a dedicated Exec
Director has not been able to find destinations for a medium capacity A310
aircraft. Since we did not get the Boeing 787's on time, converting the
Airbus A310s reduced our passenger capacity for medium haul routes such as
Singapore & Saudi Arabia and now we have deployed small Airbus 320/319s with
severe payload restrictions on these routes. Who gave the go -ahead for the
last two Airbus A310's to be sent for cargo conversion? What was the
business plan?
*And now,as of two weeks ago, the company has shut down international
freighter operations completely !!*
*12) Toronto (YYZ)* ops: Only last month AI increased its frequency to YYZ,
7 flts a week. We operated empty aircraft for 2 weeks only to start
cancelling flights at random. Only one month after the announcement we now
operate only 3 to 4 flts. The flights cancelled are not day specific but at
random, thereby confusing the passengers even more. Our methodology of
introducing flights is to accept the fact that the aircraft will run empty
for 6-8 months. Over that period the public will get to know that AI is optg
& hopefully seats would start filling up! With this strategy we need to
close our sales & marketing departments. Globally airlines plan their
schedules 4-6 months early so that the sales team can then market the
product, advertise, and hold seat sales but we have no such concept. A case
in point for the CMD is SFO ops due to start in less than 5 months, we are
not sure if it will be daily or 4 times a week.When will the flight be put
on the ticket sales system?
*13) Employee Morale*: At its lowest. What has the CMD achieved by
victimising the same people whose support is essential to deliver his
product efficiently ,safely and on time ( i.e highly skilled pilots ) ?
By not allowing senior company officials, pilots and engineers business or
first class travel privileges that have been earned over years of hard work?
All staff tickets are issued on an unconfirmed Subject to Load Basis i.e.
seats are released only if there are no revenue passengers travelling. There
is NO loss to the company nor its passengers as these staff tickets are
unconfirmed and seats cannot be blocked. In fact, the CMDs policy of forcing
Staff on Duty to travel on economy seats is displacing many fare paying
economy class passengers since business class seats are often empty and
Staff who would have normally travelled on business class seats are now
occupying economy class seats.
Ironically, the CMD himself gave his own policy a go-by by sneakily
travelling on First Class on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Mumbai
when an Air India flight was available! Who paid the tax for that flight?
Air India of course! And he repeated this again when he travelled from India
to Kuala Lumpur.
As if on cue, the Civil Aviation Secretary Nambiar bought his wife the
cheapest economy class ticket on an Air India flight and got her upgraded to
First Class through the office of his IAS counterpart in Air India- the CMD
himself!
And now they've unilaterally reduced the salaries of senior pilots by upto
70 percent without ANY prior discussion or warning !
*14) HRD Issues and Legal Costs*:Has anyone found out that the legal bills
of the company runs into crores? What are the cases pending with the
employees? Is it justified to spend crores of rupees on these legal
disputes & harass the employees? What happened to the Grievance Redressal
System within the company, as most issues could have been resolved there
without any costs? Which are the legal firms that benefit the most
monetarily from Air India?
*15) Artificially escalated pilot training costs *: Boeing 777 simulator
training costs us a fortune. Why does Air India not own Boeing 777
simulators whereas Jet Airways does? Who is causing the delay in acquiring
our own simulators? The Airbus 310 simulator has been declared redundant
because we do not want to pay the simulator engineers a higher salary. Who
gains from the contracts for outsourcing such training? What is the cost of
hiring the Jet Airways/Emirates simulators vs. having our own set up?
*16) Double Standards
The CMD continues to live in one of the mostexpensive and posh apartment complexes in Mumbai. He is a direct benefactor
of the Sixth Pay commission in a recession bound economy and travels in
First Class through a covert interline ticket arrangement in other
airlines.Does not charity begin at home?
*Why are the erstwhile and existing Minister of Civil Aviation, Secretaries
of Civil Aviation and former CMDs not held accountable for all these acts of
omission and commission?*
Last edited by jetsreams; 6th Oct 2009 at 21:13.
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Thought provoking
For the most part your points are indeed shocking and need to be exposed via a PIL. Unfortunately regardless of what one may try this is a horse that will be flogged until it cannot walk any more.
In my opinion it has reached a stage where there is no return. I am afraid with some of your revelations it is only a matter of time before tax payers rebel and refuse to support it.
Best of Luck.
In my opinion it has reached a stage where there is no return. I am afraid with some of your revelations it is only a matter of time before tax payers rebel and refuse to support it.
Best of Luck.
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Jet Streams that was one of the best posts i got to read now a days ..
I suggest you raise awareness among public about the real reasons on why our carrier has been loosing money instead of cutting salaries..
Bonne Landings !
I suggest you raise awareness among public about the real reasons on why our carrier has been loosing money instead of cutting salaries..
Bonne Landings !
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@ jetstreamcant help but read in awe your post abovewhere is manju v still printing bull crap in toi?? i wish ur post gets more readers and not just us on pprune..if u let us we could forward this to more and more people via emailits a unanimous opinion that air india is a black hole ..excellent fodder to bring mr praful patel and the incumbent cmd mr jadhav on his knees through a PIL but sigh..!! on the other hand if the public decides to do away with this white elephant wont it jeapordise 36k jobs in air indiabut hey does the public ever have a say in our democracy..meanwhile i so hope bjp in the opposition could create a furore over it
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jetstreams You forgot to ask why the Minister of Civil Aviation is a major private shareholder of rival airline, Jet Airways. Surely, there must be a huge conflict of interest inherent in this position?
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weido salt,
You ask:
"Why would that be? Why would an expat, who will be on a short term contract, want to support people who cant wait to see the back of them? As an expat would say, it would be the same as "turkeys voting for Christmas", or a sheep voting for Eid."
I'm surprised you have to ask the question and now in light of the settlement it becomes a bit of a moot point......BUT......as an AI 777 expat captain I can tell you that I and all of my other AI 777 expat captain peers were committed to not cross any lines real or virtual. AI is full of problems and yes we are resented by many AI pilots, but we are not at AI to weaken, tear down, or undercut the AI pilots. We respected their job action and would have supported it if push came to shove.
You ask:
"Why would that be? Why would an expat, who will be on a short term contract, want to support people who cant wait to see the back of them? As an expat would say, it would be the same as "turkeys voting for Christmas", or a sheep voting for Eid."
I'm surprised you have to ask the question and now in light of the settlement it becomes a bit of a moot point......BUT......as an AI 777 expat captain I can tell you that I and all of my other AI 777 expat captain peers were committed to not cross any lines real or virtual. AI is full of problems and yes we are resented by many AI pilots, but we are not at AI to weaken, tear down, or undercut the AI pilots. We respected their job action and would have supported it if push came to shove.