Air India – An Insight

Lot of you must have read bad reports on Air India and wondered why this happens? Let me give you a insight.

Air India as most of you know started operating mail services. Air India was first owned by J.R.D Tata who was one of the biggest industrialists, a man ful of passion for aviation. ANyway, Air India at that time was one of the best airlines in the world, no doubt. When operating its B707s under the Tata’s it was the real palace in the skies as it is written on Air India’s aircrafts fuselage.

Later on, the Indian government changed the aviation policy in India and demanded a formidable stake in Air India and they had to give it, then started the fall of a great airline. It soon came in full control of the government. Air India started off with Super Constelations which were replaced by B707s. Later it placed an order for the mighty B747 and was one of the first to operate that a/c into LHR…TWA being first.

So, being under governments control and being under government management started to spoil Air India. In the starting flight cancelations were the biggest problems, flights were canceled if the flight was not 50% full and they would not inform the passengers also…they came to know about it once they reached the airport…..this is typical Indian government culture. Then after the B744 order AI didnt place any orders till date.

The management of airrafts and service and maintanence of the aircrafts were worst. No proper maintanence facilities with trained hands was there. Very frequently there were reports an engine fell down while aircraft in hanger etc. This again resulted in flight delays from which AI suffers till date.

Air India then came in a contract with Russia in a civil aviation agreement on engineers and an IL 62. The deal of course was useless…the Russian workers were used to work on Russian metal so they didnt know much about this one. Soon India canceled this agreement returning the IL 62 and the engineers.

Then comes the groundstaff of AI. Air India operates 400+ people per aircraft, so the airline is tremendously overstaffed. Having just 29 aircrafts in its fleet makes it useless with these many people as most of them do nothing.

Air India’s ticketing office is the worst. They will say your seets are confirmed and when you reach airport they say your reservation is not here. This basicaly happens because Air india usualy over-books flights by a whooping 30%.

But there are some flights that AI really maintains high standards on. Its flight DEL-LHR-JFK is supposed to be a world class experience. But thats the problem, just one flight…..others are like i discribed above. Because of this people say “Even if Air India is the last flying airline in the world i wont fly it”.

Basicaly Air India seems to forget that they are in a very tough market and if they dont serve class they will loose out. Till date ost people who travel with Air India are those who work with the government and all government employees are supposed to fly with AI only. If a person who flies say SIA first and has a connecting flight with AI, you see the dramatic difference between the two.

Even if Air India modernize its fleet, no doubt it will help, but the ground management problems will still persist.

The government tried to sell off AI, but they failed miserably. SIA had colaborated with Ratan Tata, one Indian who was disgusted with Air Indias reputation and wanted to regain Air Indias pride. But Air india involved so much politics in the deal that SIA pulled out. So except SIA there were ‘NO’ other airlines was willing to buy AI. Now hay have pulled out the sell off plans…well they had to.

Air India is also a injured airline because it serves 29 aircrafts for 1 billion people. If you see Delhi can be a very important hub in Asia as it comes right between Europe and S.E.Asia and Oceanic, that will give AI a huge boost if they do things in the right manner…alas this is just a dream right now.

But people should expect improvements in Air India in the recent future, not very dramatic ones but ones like giving 100% assurance that your reservation is safe!