DNA Money Edit: Air India's bid for financial hara-kiri

The national carrier Air India seems to be venturing out on a self-destructive path again. This time it has taken a decision to host its entire inventory data – passenger information, fares, booking source and trends, among others, on the reservation system owned and operated by a group company of rival IndiGo. 

The reservation system, Travelport, is managed and controlled by InterGlobe Technologies Quotient (ITQ), which is part of InterGlobe group that owns low-cost carrier (LCC) IndiGo. This web gets more complicated in the light of the fact that the CEO of ITQ, Anil Parashar, is on the Board of Rahul Bhatia-promoted LCC.

Air India looks to be in a tearing hurry to discontinue contracts with other existing global distribution system (GDS) players such as Amadeus, Sabre and Abacus. Perils of such a move are obvious. It will limit its reach and the disastrous outcome would be loss of market share and revenues.

What's baffling is that this is not the first misadventure of Air India with IndiGo's group companies. Some years back, InterGlobe had landed Air India's call centre management contract. It was, however, eventually cancelled after a CBI probe established breach of data security and conflict of interest. Similarly, another contract for Air India Express's passenger service system with InterGlobe was ended too, but not before substantial damage was done.