Will Air India's plan help it stay airborne?

It was a harrowing week for passengers booked to fly last week with Air India to Europe, the US and Canada. Over 50 flights were cancelled when its pilots suddenly reported sick. The airline operates 16 international flights a day with large, wide-body aircraft to the US, Europe, the Far East, and South-East Asia — all sectors affected by the agitation by a section of the pilots. Flights to London, Paris, Frankfurt, New York and Newark, Toronto, Shanghai and cities in the Gulf region were affected.

Uncertainty prevailed even over the weekend, with no clear signs of either the agitation being called off or more pilots striking work.

However, the Air India management maintained on Friday that it had a contingency plan ready to provide truncated services on international routes if the pilots did not return to work. According to officials, Air India will operate at least seven of the 16 daily long-haul flights from Monday or Tuesday (May14 or 15). Officials maintained that this contingency plan should help remove uncertainty in the minds of passengers about whether Air India's long-haul flights will take off or not.

Executive pilots

The contingency plan will mean flights operating to the US through Europe (at the moment, Air India offers non-stop flights to Newark). However, services to Canada will not be available initially. The airline is planning to start these services as soon as more pilots are available.

The services of executive pilots who, because of their seniority, not only fly but also perform executive functions on the ground, will be used to operationalise this contingency plan. Such senior pilots cannot form unions and, therefore, cannot go on strike.

Though using 80 executive pilots who, according to officials, are trained to fly the Boeing 777 aircraft, which Air India uses to operate a majority of its long-haul flights, does make sense, officials refused to be drawn into saying for how long such operations can be maintained.

Wet lease

In addition, Air India was also looking at wet leasing opportunities for another four to five flights, taking the total number of daily international long-haul flights to 11 or 12. A wet lease involves acquiring an aircraft with crew. Officials said Air India had sent out about 300 e-mails for wet-leasing aircraft and has received 12 offers.

In an attempt to restore some consumer confidence in the airline, Air India has decided to lease the aircraft for the “shortest possible time”, though officials admitted leasing an aircraft for a short period would prove costly.

These, of course, are stop-gap arrangements. The crux of the problem that has led to pilots agitating time and again has to do with the airline's internal functioning. This round of agitation was triggered because of the insistence of the airline's management that pilots from the erstwhile Indian were also entitled to be trained to fly the Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner' aircraft. The first of the 27 Boeing 787 aircraft is expected to join the Air India fleet later this month.

As pilots from both Indian and Air India left for training, a section of Air India's pilots, in protest, started reporting sick — a move that led to flight schedules going haywire. Interestingly, even as some pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) — the apex union of Air India pilots — reported sick, the training of pilots from both Air India and the erstwhile Indian on the Boeing 787 continued.

Pilots' guild

On its part, the management derecognised the Indian Pilots Guild. At least 70 pilots were suspended for taking industrial action. Sources indicated that over 250 of the 500-plus members of the Indian Pilots Guild had reported sick during the week.

At another level, the pilots' decision to strike work has also put a question mark on the implementation of the Rs 30,000-crore bailout package the Government has agreed to provide the state-owned airline. The release of the money is linked to the airline achieving certain milestones, including increasing revenue earned from carrying passengers and cargo, enhancing customer satisfaction and, most importantly, employees taking ownership for implementing this package.

Bankers have now started expressing concerns on whether the package can be implemented if the agitation continues. The agitation also saw a 25-30 per cent decline in daily earnings from international passenger traffic. Air India carries about 8,000 passengers every day, earning about Rs 15 crore a day from international operations. The agitation, however, saw daily earnings from international passengers dip to about Rs 9 crore.

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