“Policies were aimed to provide healthy competition, and level-playing field”
How will the merger of Indian and AI help in terms of route distribution and profitability of the new entity?
The merged airline is working towards providing seamless connectivity of regional operations, short to medium haul trunk operation, and long haul operation – thus offering improved product through wider network coverage. The new airline is the largest in the country with a fleet size of almost 120 aircrafts, comparable to other airlines in Asia and more aircrafts are on order. It is enabling the enentity to have national and international footprints, achieve synergies, and reduce costs. The merger will also provide significance synergy for procurement, sales and distribution, besides affording an opportunity for elaborating common assets.
What about the other logistical issues, best management practices, allocation of cadre and staff, division of labour, trade unions, and hierarchy? The interests of the employees have been taken due care of through the scheme of amalgamation approved by the ministry of corporate affairs. All employees of the erstwhile Indian, and Air India, have become employees of NACIL without any breach or interruption of service and on terms and conditions not less favorable than those applicable to them earlier. A three-tier grievance redressal machinery has been put into place to address employee grievances.
AI has offices on stations that do not have any flights. What are you going to do with these extra stations?
Air India is re-working its route plans, and with acquisition of more aircrafts, it plans to connect many more places where hitherto it was not able to, operate to due to the lack of availability of aircrafts.
Are you thinking in terms of increasing the number of flights, and is there any positive movement towards signing more bilaterals?
Traffic rights of international operations are specified in the bilateral air services agreement with foreign countries, which are reviewed from time to time as part of ongoing process depending upon traffic demand, balance of benefit to our carriers, overall interest of national economy, diplomatic and political consideration. Actual operations including route selection are however left to the commercial judgment of the airlines. Presently, India has air services agreements with more than 100 countries.
How do you balance the government’s commitment to social security which means no retrenchment or golden handshakes, and economic common sense which emphasises on trimming staff and maximising output?
In the aviation sector because of its phenomenal growth there has been no need to cut down on staff. In the airport sector, the AAI is modernising 35 non-metro airports and bring them to world-class level. Besides, a number of unused airports and air strips are being made operational and, hence, the question of decreasing staff strength in this sector does not arise. Even for the merged airlines, Air India, the requirement of staff strength will only go up as new aircrafts, orders for which have already been placed, are being delivered and as the airlines scales up its operations. What about disinvestment?
Air India is expected to bring out its IPO towards the end of this year. The airline will be working out details of this programme along with its consultant for the consideration of the government.
Some outstanding issues of the aviation industry remain unresolved, like ATF prices. Operators say that with ATF prices as they are, it would be difficult to maximise output, revenues and efficiency. What are your views? Fuel alone accounts for more than 40% of the total operating cost for airlines in India. ATF rates for domestic operations in India are 60-70% higher than international benchmark. This high price of ATF is contributing to the large losses that are being incurred by the Indian aviation industry. Recently, I and senior officials from the civil aviation ministry have met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and requested him to give some concessions in the next Budget. We have asked him to consider giving ATF the status of ‘declared goods’, and reducing customs and excise duty on ATF.
Some private players are upset at what they call ‘old and archaic’ rules that govern the aviation industry in India. They say it is a hindrance to growth. Do you intend to bring about changes or significant amendments?
In past three-and-a-half years, the rules of aviation industry related to the government have undergone a sea change. Various amendments have been made. There have been changes in airport infrastructure rules – a new, airport infrastructure policy will soon be in place. FDI policy in various departments of aviation has been changed – the economies of scales will now justify huge investment in areas like MROs, jet engine shops, cargos, ground handling. India will be the fourth in the world to install satellite navigation system enabling handling of higher volumes of air traffic safety, a merger and acquisition policy has been put in place to facilitate consolidations in the sector. The new civil aviation policy is under the consideration of the government, a ground handling policy has been formulated in every sector of aviation.
Finally, how do you see the aviation sector in the immediate future, let’s say at the end of this decade?
The government has put in place the merger and acquisition policy to aid the mergers and the consolidation taking place in the sector. The government has plans to scale up the air cargo business in the country as well as helicopter operations. The Indian aviation sector will be one of the major drivers of the economy in the near future. It is expected to bring in investments to the tune of $115-120 billion. Besides being one of the top sectors for investment, it would also be one of the top sectors for employment generation where the air traffic is expected to growth at the rate of at least 25% for the next 10 years; by the end of 2008, there should be at least 100 airports in the country and this number will only grow because India needs at least 400 airports across its length and breadth.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
and one would quite obviously agree that the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) sector would be among the most affected. As they are already awake for most part of the night, it’s now time for them to wrack their brains even during the day – all to minimise the devastating impact of the crisis.
inherent mantra of the organizations and people worldwide, the technological advancements in the mobile broadband arena are being watched closely by the tech experts. Recently, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSNs) completed the multi-user field trial using the new Long term Evolution technology (LTE).