After five of Air India’s (AI’s) long-haul flights were severely delayed over the weekend, the civil aviation ministry has decided to crack the whip.
State carrier told to consolidate routes and coordination at Mumbai and Delhi airports
NEW DELHI: After five of Air India’s (AI’s) long-haul flights were severely delayed over the weekend, the civil aviation ministry has decided to crack the whip.
At a meeting with senior Air India officials on Tuesday, civil aviation secretary Ashok Chawla sought to make major changes in the functioning of the state carrier.
As a first step in this direction, the ministry will begin daily monitoring of Air India flights to London-New York, Chicago, Birmingham-Toronto, and New York from Delhi and Mumbai to know the reasons for the delays.
Also, Air India has been asked to consolidate its routes over the next three days. Route consolidation is important since the carrier has been facing an acute shortage of pilots as well as aircraft.
To make matters worse, it has had to operate additional flights for Haj pilgrims in the last few days.
Route consolidation could mean cancellation of some flights on heavy days and redeployment of aircraft and pilots.
Also, to provide quicker and more comprehensive information to stranded passengers in case of delays, the ministry has asked Air India to consolidate coordination at Delhi and Mumbai airports by working alongside Indian staff.
A senior-level coordination officer may also be appointed in Delhi for this.
The measures follow civil aviation minister Praful Patel’s strong reaction to the weekend delays. Perturbed by the plight of stranded passengers, the minister had on Monday ordered a “strong corrective action”.
Meanwhile, aviation industry experts pointed out that such delays would continue unless the state carrier gets new and better aircraft to bolster its ageing fleet.
Air India has a virtual monopoly on international routes (Jet Airways flies only in select sectors, no other domestic carrier flies international as of now).
As such, an upgrade of its fleet is the only way for the national carrier to provide better service in the coming days.
Air India’s fleet-strengthening efforts in the past have suffered due to bureaucratic wrangles, which did not allow it to buy new aircraft for over 13 years (since 1994).
At present, 45 Air India aircraft fly international and 14 of these are on their way to a phase-out. The carrier has 11 737-200 aircraft, of which seven are cargo.
Three of the A 300 B2 wide-body planes are also being phased out. With passenger load increasing, how does Air India plan to cope with an ageing fleet?
A senior official said over the next three months, Air India would get at least six new aircraft and the woes due to frequent technical snags and general aircraft paucity would abate since there are no plans to add new routes till 2009.
He also pointed out that with a 15-20-year-old fleet, frequent breakdowns should not be a surprise.
In fact, by 2011, the state carrier would have added 68 new planes to its fleet. “We have plans to buy 68 aircraft for Air India’s long-haul operations by 2011.
Of these, 27 will be 787 Dreamliners, 18 short-haul 737-800s, eight 777 LRs and 15 777 CRs,” the official affirmed. This ambitious aircraft purchase plan would require an investment of over $15 billion.
Aircraft paucity apart, the ongoing merger with Indian is also taking a toll on AI’s operational efficiency, according to experts.
“Integration of human resources has turned out to be the most ticklish issue in this merger. Integrating fleets is also proving to be a challenge.”
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