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Business News/ Companies / News/  New flights, handling disgruntled employees a priority: Air India chief
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New flights, handling disgruntled employees a priority: Air India chief

Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani also concerned about receiving bad press for 'minor incidents'

Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/MintPremium
Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

Managing disgruntled employees and launching new flights, including one to Washington in August, are among Air India’s priorities this financial year, the state-run airline’s chairman has said in an internal note.

Instances of strange and sometimes indisciplined behaviour by some of the airline’s employees continue to surface—the most recent being a pilot refusing to fly till he had his choice of co-pilot.

“Some sporadic cases of indiscipline continue to occur and affect the image and also working of the organisation," Ashwani Lohani said in a note to employees on 8 April. “Acts of indiscipline and dishonesty would not be tolerated."

Lohani was also concerned about receiving bad press for “minor incidents".

“Another matter of concern is the negative media reports which we often face especially for minor incidents that are internal in nature. This is apparently the handiwork of some of our own disgruntled employees who unfortunately are unfaithful to their own organization. It is necessary that such elements are identified and suitably counselled to work in the interest of the airline," he said.

Lohani, who took over last year, said the airline is aiming for an operational turnaround in 2017-18 or 2018-19.

All airlines in India have reported profits after years as oil prices have tanked to a record low. Fuel accounts for nearly half of an airline’s costs. Air India expects to halve its losses in 2015-16, compared to 2014-15.

Lohani said this is just the first milestone and the airline still has a long way to go to meet its total costs. Even after meeting basic operational costs, Air India needs to cover a gap of almost 4,000 crore a year in interest costs. “And unless and until we are able to do that, our survival would always remain at stake. The target for full turnaround is 2018-19, maybe a year earlier and till then our financial position shall continue to remain tight," he said.

Air India will launch direct flights to Washington this August, he wrote in the note.

“This will be followed by flights to new destinations in Europe and Africa," he said.

The airline said it will induct six Boeing 787s and three Boeing 777s this fiscal year. Besides this, it will also add 14 Airbus A320s, 13 ATR72 regional planes and six Boeing 737s over the next few months. Lohani said Air India will also order another 15 Airbus A320 planes over and above this fleet induction.

These planes will need more pilots and cabin crew.

“The need of the hour is selfless, hard and honest work that would lead to good times for the company in future," Lohani added.

An analyst said Air India management should focus on key improvement areas, instead of worrying about other issues.

“One would have loved to see Air India top on-time performance, aircraft utilization, customer service and flight occupancy," said Jitender Bhargava, a former executive director with Air India. “I would have ideally liked Air India leadership to concentrate on these elements rather than engage in superficial exercises like placing a logo atop the Air India building, giving awards to those who participated in evacuation efforts (in Kuwait) 25 years ago and introducing a traditional meal service which wasn’t practical and failed to take off."

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Published: 13 Apr 2016, 01:27 AM IST
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