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G-BYGB · Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 1:13 pm Post subject:

PP,yesterday in a meeting with the AI management asked them to cut down costs upto Rs.5000Crs in a phased manner.
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karatecatman · Guest

Update
Thanks to source
Air India to auction and sell 4 A320s and 5 737s. This is only the airframe. Does not include the engines and other parts. Essentially these are the aircraft rotting without engine spares.

karatecatman · Guest

INDIAN EXPRESS

Express News Service
19 Oct 2009

BHUBANESWAR: After a year and a half, Air India has decided to revive its operations to Chennai which was snapped abruptly in May last year. It has planned to restart flights from October 25 daily, like in the past.

The move may have come as a relief to the travel industry as of now but many question the logic behind flying an Airbus between Chennai and Bhubaneswar.

Last year in May, the national carrier grounded its direct operations on the route without any reason to show. Low passenger traffic was among the top reasons for such a decision which hurt the travel and tourism industry badly.

For there was no direct connectivity to the Tamil Nadu capital and one needed to spend almost an entire day taking a detour either through Bengaluru or the nearer Hyderabad.

Air India has often been accused of neglecting Orissa and discontinuation of the direct flight to Chennai also prompted the State Government to lodge its protest strongly.

However, the national carrier management seemed to have given in finally and recently took decision to restart operation along Bhubaneswar-Chennai sector.

As per the schedule, the daily flight would leave Chennai at 11 a.m. and arrive here at 12.55 p.m. On the return route, it would leave for Chennai at 1.35 p.m.

The aircraft will have both economy and business class configurations.

However, travel industry insiders are sceptical about the decision saying it will not sustain. The original plan was to extend the flight to Kolkata as it would have benefitted both the fliers and the carrier besides helping the sector’s profitability.

Currently, air travellers have just three flights to Kolkata from Bhubaneswar and two of them are scheduled during the morning hours of the day. Kingfisher and JetLite fly during the morning while Kingfisher also operates another one in the evening.

“All the three aircraft are small ones carrying just about 40-odd fliers.

Those who want to avail connectivity for international flights will have to either fly in the morning or take the train because there is nothing during the noon and afternoon hours,’’ said sources.

Besides, passenger traffic being a major factor of financial sustainability, extending the Chennai-Bhubaneswar flight to Kolkata would have made sense as the craft is an Airbus. Finding 145 passengers daily from Bhubaneswar will be a problem whereas an extension to Kolkata would have helped the cause besides giving travellers from the neighbouring state another option.

This apart, connectivity to Kolkata would have given better linkage with the North Eastern states which is currently missing.

“These are financially and logically sound propositions which is why we are baffled why the Air India management did not consider the same,’’ wondered an insider.

Was it deliberate or was it just indifference? Only Air India has the answer to the questions.

iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2567

This does not make much sense. Before they discontinued this flight due to poor loads, IC was flying CRJ on this route. And now they want to introduce A320 ? Better to introduce a CRJ on this route and gradually ramp to 320 if traffic warrants.

karatecatman · Guest

TIMES OF INDIA
Employees forgo non-veg to help cut costs for Air India
Saurabh Sinha
20 October 2009

NEW DELHI: Air India employees in Delhi have offered to turn vegetarian — as their bit to keep the airline afloat. The AI canteen at Delhi airport caters to between 700 and 1,100 employees daily where a veg thali comes for Rs 2.50.

Chicken is served thrice a week and the two-piece dish plus the veg thali hikes the price to a princely Rs 3.50. AI spends about Rs 20 lakh a month through its subsidiary, Hotel Corporation, which runs the five-star Centaur for its employees here — while the revenue adds up to barely a couple of lakhs, going veg would save up to Rs 3 lakh.

"We can't allow the thali price to be raised. So to cut cost on canteen front, we have proposed going veg. This is one of the cost-cutting measures we have given to the management and it has been received very well," AI union leader V J Deka said. Though merged on paper, this AI union proposal has drawn sneers from Indian Airlines old-timers who call it "too little, too late".

IA canteens in Delhi — where 100 kg of chicken was consumed every week — and Chennai turned vegetarian on March 23, 2004. In Delhi, a thali costs Rs 10. And days later, on April 1, 2004, IA hiked thali prices in the union's bastion at Kolkata. A veg thali's price there went up from about Re 1 to Rs 7.50.

Taking a chicken and fish dish would take the price up to Rs 11 and Rs 15, respectively, in the Kolkata IA canteen. "Going veg in Delhi was tough as employees here loved chicken, while Chennai was easier. The saving from this simple move was Rs 50 to 60 crore annually," said a senior official.

Turning veg in some places happened when IA officials asked for their performance-linked incentive (PLI) then. "We were told to make sacrifices if we wanted PLI. So these moves were part of that," said a IA old-timer.

con spirito · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 577 Location: Inflight

Just have a look at the prices of the thalis, this rate im sure even my grandfather might have never come across.
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The only problem is........all the wealth is distributed in the wrong hands.

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:23 pm Post subject:

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Air India reportedly announced plans to phase out expatriate pilots over the next 12 months, as part of cost saving measures under the carrier’s turnaround plan (Yahoo! India News, 17-Oct-2009). The phase out could reportedly save up to USD16 million p/a. The carrier has already reportedly decreased expatriate pilots from 175 to 155, and currently has 57 expatriate captains and 12 expatriate first officers, compared to 125 Indian captains and 136 first officers.

Sri_Bom

Jaysit · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 4346

If they're offering thalis for Rs 2.50 and 3.50, they're obviously subsidizing these meals. Air India employees are not a bunch of school children who need to be mollycoddled by subsidized meals especially given the fact that a quarter of them don't do any work, a quarter are grossly overpaid, and the other half don't do any work AND are grossly overpaid.

It's no wonder that this organization is broke.

Make these workers pay market rates for their goddamned thalis.

iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2567

himmat01 · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1392 Location: DEL

karatecatman · Guest

www.dnaindia.com/money/report_air-india-may-lease-simulators_1301097
Air India may lease simulators
Ramiya Bhas
DNA
October 21, 2009

Mumbai: Air India, which needs to generate an additional Rs 2,000 crore in revenues according to its revival plan, is squeezing every penny to earn income.

One way the airline is planning to do that is by leasing its training centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad to other carriers. The two training centres have simulators for the Boeing 777 and Airbus 320 aircraft, respectively. The carrier has also set up a cabin crew training facility in Mumbai.

According to AI's turnaround plan, the airline planned to earn Rs 5 crore per month by leasing its training centres.

"Not all domestic carriers have the required simulators and we are planning to lease out these spaces to other carriers, as per their time and need," said a highly-placed AI official. The details are still on the drawing board.

Though the leasing of training centres was practiced in the past -- to domestic players and around 10 international carriers -- the official said it had been stopped as it was not used very often.

Another AI official told DNA Money that the use of simulators for training being low, this is a virgin market where the carrier hoped to rake in revenue.

AI also used to lease its Boeing 777 stimulator to the Indian Air Force, while the Airbus stimulator was used to conduct training for its cargo operations.

The airline is upgrading its training centre in Mumbai. "We are currently installing our new 777 stimulator at the Mumbai centre, which will be operational in December," an official said.

karatecatman · Guest

TIMES OF INDIA
MPs’ panel picks holes in AI’s cost-cutting plan
Akshaya Mukul & Saurabh Sinha
TNN 21 October 2009

NEW DELHI: A day before the aviation ministry to seek funds from the Pranab Mukherjee-headed Group of Ministers for Air India, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on transport on Tuesday pointed out serious issues in the way the airline has been run so far, finding holes in the airline's cost-cutting move.

CPM leader Sitaram Yechury-led panel came down heavily on the airline's lease agreements, saying it went against AI's interests and also criticised Maharaja's inability to utilise its share of foreign flights. The airline management and top aviation ministry officials told the Standing Committee on Transport that it had returned five aircraft leased from Jordan. But the planes have not been accepted so far by the airline there as the agreement with AI stipulated that aircraft be returned exactly in the same condition with exactly the same parts that they were sent out with.

"In airline business, aircraft spare parts are regularly interchanged. So having a lease agreement with a clause to return planes with same parts is against AI's interests. The airline is now hunting for those five aircraft's original parts so that they can be fitted and accepted by Air Jordan," AI is learnt to have told the panel that's examining if the merger of AI and IA led to the current crisis.

What surprised the parliamentary panel even more was the fact that AI has over time stopped many profitable routes or changed their times that has benefited other airlines. "For instance, AI used to operate a night flight from Delhi to Bangkok and Singapore that reached Singapore in the morning. people would take this flight, finish their work and take the same flight back home at night. This flight's time was changed to night. Who will reach Singapore at night, check into a hotel and then do his day's work. This time change benefited other foreign and private Indian carriers," said sources.

AI also gave a break-up of its total cost — fuel: 38%, others: 36%, wage bill: 18% and debt servicing: 8%. "The panel pointed out that AI's main focus seemed to be on wage bill without bothering about other heads," said sources.

The panel also questioned how a large purchase order for 111 planes at almost Rs 50,000 was cleared? "AI's equity base is Rs 145 crore and it was given sovereign guarantees to buy planes worth Rs 50,000 crore. The panel sought answer for this," said sources.

Hope the facts come out.

himmat01 · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1392 Location: DEL

Phadnis · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 12:34 pm Post subject:

karatecatman · Guest

Phadnis · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 12:41 pm Post subject:

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

karatecatman · Guest

Update
Air India and Indian Airlines call centres to be merged soon.

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

rutvij · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:25 pm Post subject:

747-237 · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:07 pm Post subject:

KCM, according to a post on a.net; VT-EPW has been sold. Any confirmation ?

karatecatman · Guest

tayaramecanici · Member Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 648

Manish Soni · Member Joined: 09 Sep 2009 Posts: 102 Location: LHR

vivekman · Member Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 1897 Location: BOM

Manish Soni · Member Joined: 09 Sep 2009 Posts: 102 Location: LHR

Thanks for that Vivek
Btw, if they were SOLD in March 2009 what're they still doing in IC's hangar ? Surprised

Pretty certain the buyer aint gonna be flying them (in terms of inducting them in any fleet as such) but dont they want their planes or what ? Laughing

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

Who did actually buy them??

rutvij · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:41 pm Post subject:

747-237 · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:42 pm Post subject:

VT-EPX was bought by GA Telesis (based in Ft. Lauderdale, FL), and scrapped by Air Salvage International in Kemble, UK.

karatecatman · Guest

HINDUSTAN TIMES
Air India to get first bail-out money before Dec

Samiran Saha, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, October 23, 2009

Cash-starved state-run carrier Air India is likely to be given the first instalment of the bail out package before December, a senior official with the civil aviation ministry told the Hindustan Times. He said the fleet acquisition plan of the airline would also be re-looked.

The government has agreed to give Rs 5,000 crore to the carrier, which is in deep crisis because of losses to the tune of Rs 7,200 crore, interest outgo of Rs 4 crore per day and a bank overdraft of Rs 16,000 crore.

“The bail-out package should come to the airline before calendar year ends. This will help the airline meet its financial needs keeping in view the peak travel season, which has already begun,” the official said.

The government will re-look the airline’s fleet acquisition programme. The cash-strapped carrier has placed orders for 111 new aircraft worth Rs 50,000 crore.

Manny · Member Joined: 10 Feb 2007 Posts: 292

747-237 · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:47 am Post subject:

karatecatman · Guest

TIMES OF INDIA
AI, IA may work as separate divisions
Saurabh Sinha
TNN
24 October 2009

NEW DELHI: There's finally tacit approval in the corridors of power that the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines has not achieved its objective
of creating a mega airline but instead could have played a substantial role in bringing the Maharaja to the ICU where he is now battling for life. Highly placed sources said though the aviation ministry is not going to demerge the combined entity, National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL), a plan is being worked on to let the erstwhile IA and AI work as separate divisions under a common umbrella.

"We have had discussions on this issue at the highest level in the ministry and a consensus is emerging on letting the domestic and international divisions operate without expecting them to act like a single company. The airline management is working out a way to achieve this. It's better they live separately without getting divorced than die together," said highly placed sources.

Instead of the promised economies of scale that should have led to huge savings, post-merger the new entity NACIL is incurring a monthly cash loss of Rs 400 crore. While all airlines are suffering at the moment, NACIL's woes are compounded by the fact that AI and IA employees don't see eye to eye on any issue.

AI and IA employees have long said massive differences between them on all fronts like work culture and pay scales could have never led to the plan working out. As the ministry eyes an equity-cum-aircraft purchase assistance of close to Rs 14,000 crore over next three years, Parliamentarians have begun assessing the impact (read damage) caused by the merger. CPM leader Sitaram Yechury-led standing committee on transport is studying this issue.

The IA officers' association has submitted a letter to this committee in which it said that the merger was not successful and the reasons for that. "Merger happened two years over ago. But processes, systems, flights, operations, duties and responsibilites are separate and distinct as if two companies still exist," it says.

The six strategic business units linked to NACIL in areas like engineering MRO, cargo, ground handling and low cost carrier are yet to take shape. These SBUs were supposed to have taken employees from the airline wing so that NACIL could boast of a competitive employee-per-aircraft ratio. "Most importantly, networks have not been rationalised. AI Express, AI and IA continue to operate on common routes at common timings to the detriment of all three airlines," the association says.

NACIL has also not been able to fly the domestic and international flights on the common code of AI so far, an important pre-condition for joining Star Alliance. As a result, announcements like "Air India announces the departure of its flight IC xxx" from one Indian city to another are still heard at airports across the country. This has even led to a private Indian airline trying to pip NACIL to the post by entering Star Alliance before it.

"IA pilots have not been paid the flying allowance of August while AI pilots have been paid subsistence allowance of that month just two days back. It's an attempt to divide and rule," said Captain V K Bhalla, who headed the recent executive pilots' stir.

Clues are there in IA's old route structure being revived in phases.
Parliamentary panel looking at fleet plans and structure again

Phadnis · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:03 pm Post subject:

KCM, this is an old issue, but I just hoped for a clarification.

Once upon a time, was it decided definitely by the relevant committee that Air India would order the A340 series and Indian Airlines would buy the A330 for medium haul to tier-2 cities and a further series of A319/A320/A321 to replace their current narrowbody fleet? And that this plan was scuttled by the powerful clique comprised of Mantriji and Boeing's Amravati-born posterboy salesman, who together turned it into an order for 777-200LR/777-300ER and then left a few A319/A320/A321 scraps behind for Airbus to deliver to IC?

I just cannot help but think how much better it would have been for AI to have an A330 (don't know so much about A340) fleet today rather than a high-capacity 777-200LR/777-300ER fleet, and for the two airlines to have been separate entities. The AI culture and the IC culture were always going to be like oil and water - immiscible. Unions had always harped on this, pre-merger, but nobody listened to them.

It's very easy to criticise AI/IC staff for being rigid and inflexible about the merger, but this tendency should have been realized by Mantri long before the merger. People have their own insecurities. The IC hierarchy was somehow going to be haphazardly combined with the AI hierarchy which didn't go down well with the crew on either side because neither was really kept in the loop as to how this would be done. The staff's insecurity is more a result of how badly-managed the merger was and how idiotically conceived it was, than a result of their own personal failings. There were just so many lingering issues about this merger that it should never, ever have happened.
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karatecatman · Guest

Phadnis · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:25 pm Post subject:

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

Phadnis · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:04 pm Post subject:

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay