Air India staff seek revival package

HYDERABAD: Demanding a revival package for Air India, the employees unions accused the Union government of trying to declare it ‘sick’ to pave the way for privatising the airline company. “It is not right to blame lowly paid employees for the losses being suffered by Air India. In fact, the government’s unwise policies have put the company in the red,” said S.P.D Sudhakar, Regional Secretary, Air Corporation Employees’ Union.

Talking to media persons at the relay hunger strike camp organised by the union in association with the Aviation Industry Employees Guild, he said though recession and high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices have reversed the airline industry’s profits, the Ministry of Civil Aviation too was not helping matters with its policies.

Giving foreign airlines up to 90,000 seats per week, launch of Air India Express on the same routes as Air India and allowing all private carriers to ply profitable routes were cited as reasons for Air India’s losses. Also, shortage of pilots resulted in at least 15 leased flights not being flown. The unions partly attribute the losses to the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India as the newly-created National Aviation Company of India Ltd registered a loss of more than Rs. 3,000 crore in the first year. They are also against the proposal to introduce joint venture ground handling services in airports across the country.

“Earlier, we were earning Rs. 43 crore by providing ground handling services for all aircrafts in the Begumpet airport. Now we have to pay 10 crore for ground handling for our own airlines apart from the losses at the new international airport,” says Mr. Sudhakar. Greater regulation of domestic routes and interest free loans to Air India are among their other demands.