Merger leaves Air India staff perplexed

There’s no end to the confusion among the employees of the country’s national carrier about their roles after the merger of Air India, Indian Airline and Air India Express into National Aviation Company International Limited (NACIL).

The three airlines, which were merged in 2007 but continued to function as separate entities, have been forced to function as a single entity again due to lack of cockpit crew and expiry of aircraft lease.

Since last week, Air India (AI) has been operating four flights which were earlier operated by Indian Airline and Air India Express (AIE). “We have been assigned daily flights in Cochin-Jeddah and Mumbai-Dubai sectors. These were being operated by AIE since the merger,” said a senior crew member of AI, adding AIE is experiencing a shortage of cockpit crew (pilots), which has led them to close a number of routes.

After the merger of the three airlines, their role was properly defined. While AI operated on international sectors, AIE was to operate as a low-cost airline to international destinations in the Middle-East. Indian Airline was to operate on domestic routes and destinations in neighbouring countries like Shanghai, Kathmandu and Kabul.

AI will also operate on the Mumbai-Chennai-Singapore route with the beginning of the winter schedule from October 25. "This means, the journey to Singapore will lengthen by two hours over the existing five hours," he said.

Moreover, even the routes operated by Indian Airlines to neighbouring countries like Shanghai will go to AI this winter. "Indian has six Airbus 330 aircraft, the lease of which expires this month. So they will give us the Shanghai sector to operate," he said.