Neha Jain: http://indianairlinesnews.blogspot.com/18

1. No pilot shortage, RTI exposes Air India's lies
Recession may be over for the airline sector but for the country's national carrier Air India, its problems are only multiplying. A new RTI document has laid bare the airline's claim that it suffers from a shortage of pilots, reports CNN-IBN.
Air India has the largest fleet in the industry, but information obtained through the RTI Act now shows that Indian Airlines pilots are under-utilised despite the airline's complaints of a pilot shortage. Pilots, bound by contract to fly a minimum of 60 hours, actually fly for less than the minimum.

In December 2010, commanders from all four regions flew just 53, 58 and 49 hours per month which is far below their full capacity.
Pilots say poor management of schedules since Air India-Indian Airlines merger is one reason.
But another reason for this is that there are not enough flights.
A look at the list of domestic and international flights presented before a Rajya Sabha Parliamentary committee last month shows that 32 flights, most with heavy passenger load of 85-95 per cent, one even 100 percent were cancelled outright - all within the last six months.
Insiders say the real beneficiaries of these flight withdrawals have been private airlines that have taken over the same slots and sectors the next day from when these flights were cancelled.
So why were so many profitable flights cancelled, especially when the beneficiaries appear to be private airlines?
2. Air India's head honchos under Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi's close scrutiny
New Delhi: The heat is on at Air India and facing it is the national carrier's top management. The new Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi is scrutinising the performance of the top brass amid increasing unrest among the employees over apathy from their top managers.

Matters aggravated last week after the January salaries of employees were delayed thrice. The airline is already under fire from its employees for hiring senior executives at high salaries even as the company has been bleeding heavily.

Making it clear that he was closely monitoring the situation, Vayalar Ravi told NDTV, "Workers issues are there, they are separate. But management issues also we will look into."

The minister has over the past two days, met 14 unions of the national carrier, which represent 30,000 employees.
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The employees' grouse has been the mammoth salaries of the management heads at a time when the airline is crumbling under a debt of Rs. 40,000 crore and has asked for another Rs. 2,000 crore from the government to tide over the crisis.

Sources say the Civil Aviation Ministry has already cracked the whip. One officer has already been sacked and two more could be shown the door.

Pawan Arora was sacked as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Air India Express. He was earning Rs. 1.2 crore per annum.

Stefan Sukumar, Chief Training Officer (CTO) could go next. He currently takes home Rs. 1.2 crore every year and

Gustav Baldauf , the COO of Air India is also likely to be shunted out . He has a paycheck of Rs. 3 crore per annum.

The minister will also have to look into another sensitive issue of parity in pay of employees after Indian Airlines and Air India merged into a single entity.

Next on the Civil Aviation Minister's agenda is a meeting with the independent Directors on the board of Air India in an attempt to bridge the growing gap between the top management and the employees.

3. Shiv Sena demands end to walk-in interviews for Air India cabin crew
Demanding a stop to the ongoing walk-in interviews for Air India cabin crew in Delhi, the Shiv Sena on Thursday accused the airline management of adopting an anti-Marathi stance. A delegation of party MPs met Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi on behalf of the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, a trade union arm of the Sena, and presented a memorandum of demands.

“We demanded an immediate stop to the walk-ins, being held in Delhi, to fill 8,500 vacancies for cabin crew. These recruitments are being done on contract basis, which means the crew cannot form unions, join them or avail themselves of any privileges to which regular employees are entitled. The management is using the divide-and-rule policy [to break the strength of the unions]. Moreover, Air India operations are being shifted out of Mumbai. One unit was shifted to Kochi, another to Kolkata and other operations to Delhi. This policy is anti-Maharashtra and anti-Marathi. Air India was born in Mumbai and a major chunk of its employees is from here,” Shiv Sena MP Bharatkumar Raut told a press conference.

Sena MP Anandrao Adsul said there had been a deliberate conspiracy to weaken the airline company by handing lucrative routes over to private players.

“All the profitable routes were given to private airlines, as a result they made money and the national carrier ended up with losses. Why is it that despite the huge increase in passenger traffic, Air India is still running into losses,” Mr. Adsul asked.

'Bid to wreck union'

The Sena alleged that the management was trying to wreck the employees' union, and that the plan to shift the company's base out of Mumbai was aimed at slackening the Sena's clout with the unions.

Sena spokesperson Anil Desai said that even as the employees were not paid wages on time, the company's chief operating officer (COO), expatriate Captain Gustav Baldauf, took home a pay-check running into crores of rupees.

Earlier, Mr. Ravi stressed the need to evolve a new methodology to improve the performance of the carrier. He said “a third party” might be roped in to decide the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines.

“We want to satisfy the employees. There is a difference of opinion between the employees of Air India and Indian Airlines and between the employees and the management on parity issues. Pay-scales and promotions have to be sorted out. We need time to resolve these issues. I want to carry everybody with me. Wage-cuts were never on my mind. The merger must take place, parity has to come about, but the question is how it is going to be done. It can also be done by a third party.

4. Delhi high court stays single judge's order on derecognition of Air India union
The Delhi high court today stayed its single judge's order setting aside derecognition of Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) by Air India management for going on strike following Mangalore aircrash last year.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna stayed till March 8 the order of a single judge who turned down ACEU's derecognition by Air India on the ground that proper procedure was not followed while taking a decision.

The bench was hearing an appeal filed by Air India challenging the single judge's order.

On January 28, Justice S Muralidhar had set aside the decision of the national carrier management to derecognise ACEU after observing that principles of natural justice was not followed as the union was not provided an opportunity before taking any disciplinary action.

He also converted the May 26, 2010, notification of Air India as the show cause notice for the employees and asked the national carrier to take a decision after following the prcedure laid down under the law.

he single judge's order had come on a petition filed by ACEU challenging Air India's notice derecognising it for going on strike last year.

NEHA JAIN

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