Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines Ltd is seeing an exodus of people with at least 3,500 employees having resigned in the last one year, also reflected in falling employee costs in the April-June quarter.
The headcount is down to 4,200 from 7,700 a year ago, according to two executives of the Vijay Mallya-promoted airline. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Out of the 4,200, 40% are not working as the airline closed at least 20 airport stations as part of downsizing its operations,” said one of the officials.
A Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson declined to comment.
The management has not paid salaries since February, prompting employees to resort to multiple strikes in August.
At least 15 flights were cancelled on Saturday.
The airline management has not paid salaries since February, prompting employees to resort to multiple strikes this month. Photo: Hindustan Times The situation is likely to aggravate from Tuesday night as more pilots are expected to join the stir if they are not paid by the end of the banking hours. That the airline is losing employees is reflected in the company’s April-June quarter results where the employee costs for Kingfisher Airlines fell 66% to Rs.58.88 crore, against the Rs.173.66 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
Typically, employee costs represent 10-12% of the total operating cost of an airline.
One such employee, 30-year-old Anish Dcosta, an aircraft engineer who decided to quit in May as he was not getting his salary, said: “I have decided to go for further studies.” He, however, did not divulge details of his dues or future plans.
A human resources consultant, requesting anonymity, said the exodus would impact both Kingfisher Airlines as well as the industry at large.
“Those with soft skills may find a job in other sectors, including the hospitality sector. But those employees with airline-specific talent (such as pilots) will create a surplus in the domestic job market at a time when the global airline industry is facing turbulence,” he added.
Craig Jenks, president of Airline/Aircraft Projects Inc., a New York-based air transport consulting and advisory services firm, said it is a negative situation, adding, “It is much harder to become profitable by shrinking than by growing.”
Meanwhile, the second Kingfisher Airlines executive cited above was optimistic that employees would return.
“Though we failed to retain talent, I do not see a problem. The brand—Kingfisher Airlines—is still strong. Employees would return to the airline once it is ready to fly the full schedule or it gets an investor—be it a domestic institution or an international airline,” he said.
“Kingfisher continues to believe it will get recapitalized and get on a path of sustained profitability. The airline is in discussions with several strategic and financial investors to bring fresh capital,” the airline said in a statement while announcing the April-June quarter results, without disclosing the names of the potential investors.
High jet fuel costs and grounded planes led to cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines’ net loss widening two-and-a-half times to Rs.650.78 crore for the three months ended 30 June against a Rs.263.53 crore net loss in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
Incidentally, the scenario is different for other airlines.
Rival carrier Jet Airways (India) Ltd has reduced over 600 employees from the April-June quarter of the last fiscal to the comparable quarter of this fiscal, but its employee costs have risen.
Jet Aiways incurred Rs.401 crore as employee costs in the April-June quarter, up 11.38% from the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.
In an analyst call early this month, K.G. Vishwanath, vice-president, commercial strategy and investor relations, said Jet Airways has 220 high-cost expatriate pilots and intends to reduce the number to 50 by the end of this year.
Another listed airline, SpiceJet Ltd’s employee cost for the April-June quarter stood at Rs.131.35 crore—an increase of 71% (Rs.76.93 crore) from the year-ago period.
Kingfisher Airlines lost 1.71% to Rs.9.78 on Friday on BSE while the benchmark Sensex index rose 0.19% to 17,691.08 points.
Groupon, Facebook, and Zynga are currently having difficulties since their initial public offerings. Their losses can go as much as 70%. Currently, public cloud computing companies are not affected. This is primarily because companies like NetSuite and Salesforce.com have already proven themselves since they’ve been around since late 1990s. These companies have already proven that their customers are capable of buying their products and services. These customers also know that these companies offer cloud computing applications which are packed with benefits.
Social networking companies, on the other hand, are relatively new and they have not proven themselves. The social industry goes with the highly changing times and that it’s difficult to convert the customers’ support to money. This year, companies like Bazzarvoice, Brightcove, Demandware, and ExactTarget have gone public. These cloud computing companies’ share prices have not dipped below their IPO prices. However, this should not mean that the cloud computing industry can relax a bit because more and more cloud computing providers will surely go public. When these companies do, there are so many stocks available in the market.
Investors must also consider macro-economics. If the US economy doesn’t improve, the first one to be affected is software because customers will surely wait for the economy to improve before they make a purchase. The effect may not be very visible now because these cloud companies offer subscriptions to the public therefore revenues are not recognized instantaneously. However, if there are no new subscriptions in the succeeding months then one can expect revenue problems in the near future although the effects won’t be as devastating as the social stocks.
“One of the finest achievements in Canadian aviation history, the delta wing Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was never allowed to fulfill its mission. Its role was to replace the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck as a supersonic all weather interceptor. A source of national pride, the Arrow incorporated advanced technical innovations and became a symbol of Canadian excellence.
The Mark 2 production version of the arrow, powered with two Avro Canada Iroquois turbo jet engines, would have been capable of achieving beyond Mach 2 with full military load. This aircraft was a culmination of research and development unprecedented in Canada's aeronautical history. Thousands of people witnessed the first flight of the prototype flown by Chief Test Pilot, Jan Zurakowski, on March 25, 1958.
For various reasons, mostly due to high costs, the Federal Government cancelled the Avro Arrow program on February 20, 1959. Almost everything connected to the program was destroyed. Fortunately the forward fuselage of the first Mark 2 Arrow was saved and is on display at the
National Aviation Museum in Ottawa. There are also some portions of the wings and control surfaces at the museum in Ottawa.” (Quoted from an Avro Arrow historical site)
Lloyd Walton, former Saultite, film maker and painter, took it upon himself to donate two paintings of the Avro Arrow that are on display at the Bushplane Museum in 2008.
They were unveiled during a reception for 100 pilots and aviation enthusiasts that were flying vintage aircraft across the country. The Soo, and Bushplane Museum was a featured stopover.
While speaking about the Arrow to the group, Lloyd noticed a woman in the front row pointing to the man beside her. After his speech, the man introduced himself as one of the men who built the Arrow. He went on to say that he has never had a job like it since. " Every day thousands of men and women rushed excitedly to work knowing that they were producing something that was destined to be the best in the world. " The man's wife went on to tell Lloyd that he still cries when he thinks of that Black Friday when he was told to go home and leave his tools where he left them.
The brainpower working on later even more sophisticated models of the Arrow were also working on lunar modules. They were the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of their time. Alas many in that group left Canada to help NASA put a man on the moon. Others went to Britain to develop the Concord.
Lloyd remembers that Black Friday back in 1959. I was 13 years old and I remember my dad, an aviation enthusiast, coming home from work and turning on the radio. He sat with his head in his hands. Lloyd got his wings through Air Cadets and wanted to have a career as a pilot but because his math skills didn't fit the profile, he decided to become an artist and enrolled in the Ontario College of Art. From there he went on to be a successful film director-cinematographer. Through the years he would meet people that worked on the Arrow and hear their stories of pride and sorrow. While doing research for a film on Bushplane history in Ottawa , which incidentally plays in the Ranger Theatre at the museum, Lloyd came across some startling classified material about the Arrow. "It ignited my passion and made me want to dig deeper, and I did. The more I found out, the angrier I got. So I translated that energy into two paintings, called the Rise and Fall of the Arrow, which are now displayed in the Ranger Theatre in the Bushplane Heritage Museum.”
Credit: Lloyd Walton
The Museum is presently trying to find funding to do a French translation of the film Bush Angels which plays in the Ranger Theatre.
I graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1970. I was in the Advertising Program, majoring in animation in my last year.
Right out of school I became a director-cinematographer. I make mostly documentaries, linking history, culture and nature. My movies have won over 35 national, provincial, and international film awards.
I have painted in oils and acrylics all of my life. The locations where the Group of Seven painted were often my workplace for filming. I’ve met buddies of Grey Owl, Tom Thompson, and Lawren Harris, and worked with A J Casson of the Group. Their influences in style, content and use of colour are evident in my work. The American painter, Edward Hopper also nourished my vision with his blend of story, lighting and architecture.
I enjoy showing the power of the landscape, using the human form or objects consumed by time and weather.
My next showings of work will be in Muskoka and Newfoundland.
Exhibitions (Group)
John B. Aird Gallery - Queens Park
Art Gallery of Algoma - Sault Ste Marie
Canadian National Auto Show Cross Canada Tour
The Ontario Bushplane Heritage Centre - Sault Ste. Marie
Chapel Gallery - Bracebridge
The Art Space - Huntsville
Art Square Gallery - Toronto
Exhibitions (Solo)
Catto Gallery (Muskoka Lakes Museum) - Port Carling
INVESTORS will be looking for signs that Qantas is managing costs - in particular a soaring fuel bill - when the airline posts its full year results on Thursday.
Qantas shocked the market with a massive earnings downgrade in June, slashing its underlying profit before tax estimates to between $50 million and $100 million for the year to June 30, 2012.
It blamed the downgrade on a $450 million pre-tax loss in its troubled international division plus a $100 million cost from industrial action.
Chief executive Alan Joyce has flagged a looming statutory loss and, in a note issued after the profit downgrade, investment researcher Morningstar estimated Qantas would turn in a statutory loss of $198 million after restructuring costs of between $370 million and $380 million.
The airline is in the middle of a restructuring program that will cut a total of 2,800 jobs and includes closing its heavy maintenance facility at Melbourne's Tullamarine airport and selling two catering centres.
Morningstar has estimated Qantas's full year net profit at $67 million before abnormal items, down from $277 million prior to the downgrade.
Goldman Sachs has estimated full year net profit, before abnormal items, of $54.1 million.
Qantas posted a $250 million profit for 2010/11.
Goldman Sachs analyst Andrew Gibson said in a June note to clients that 2012/13 earnings should benefit from the end of industrial action in FY12, the cutting of loss-making routes and other restructuring initiatives.
However risks remain from increased competition in the domestic market, which has been Qantas's best-performing division.
Qantas also flagged it would incur its highest yet fuel bill in 2011/12, and Fat Prophets analyst Greg Fraser said management of fuel costs through hedging and currency strategies will be a factor to watch.
Thursday's results will be the last filed by Qantas in its current configuration, with the airline having split its domestic and international operations into separate reporting entities from the start of the 2012/13 financial year.
I have a joke with a friend of mine that airline pilots are nothing but glorified bus drivers. As cynical as this may be, for the majority of us with regular jobs who fly economy air travel is increasingly becoming like its land-based cousin: cramped, overcrowded and at times downright unpleasant.
Most people living in our modern industrial society take air travel for granted. We think very little about hopping on a plane and travelling around the world for little more than a couple of weeks wages. As jet fuel prices bounce along with the price of crude however many airlines are increasingly struggling to break even. Fuel prices now account for 35 percent of operating costs compared to 15 percent a decade ago. Air travel has always been a fickle business, earning an average net profit of one to two percent, compared with an average of over five percent for U.S. industry as a whole. Research from the 1980s found that some carriers would have zero profitability if they had lost just one out of ten business passengers.
So how does the future look for the airline industry? If recent trends are anything to go by, not good. Not good at all.
Plane Trends
Airlines have increasingly been moving towards smaller aircraft despite the popularity of the “Superjumbo” Airbus A380 since its release in 2007. Airbus has sold 253 A380s while Boeing has orders for 106 747-8s with the large majority of these being used for cargo operations. Richard Aboulafia from Teal Group, an Aerospace and Defense Market Analysis company believes that smaller, sleeker aircraft are the future of international air travel ““The market for large aircraft in general is disappearing fast. Most of the 747-8 planes are cargo. There’s just a limited market.”
Packed Like Sardines
In an effort to increase profits from each flight a number of airline companies are trying to fit more passengers onto each plane. The sale of an extra one or two seats can mean the difference between breaking even and a loss. While standing room only flights appear to be nothing other than a cheap marketing ploy companies have reduced the seat width in order to fit an extra seat in each row.
Air New Zealand recently replaced it’s older 747s with a significantly narrower 777-300ER. To accommodate the same 3-4-3 seat configuration the new seats are one inch narrower and the aisle has decreased in size as well. Air New Zealand was named the most innovative airline in the world last year Airlinetrends.com and so it is likely that other airline companies will follow suit.
In 2010 an Italian company, Avio Interiors, introduced the world to its “Skyrider” saddle-style seat. Intended for up to four hour long flights the passenger sits at an angle with 23 inches of legroom (compared with 30 inches on a standard configuration) allowing more passengers per flight. Two years later no airlines have yet committed to the Skyrider seating but as fuel prices continue to rise one has to wonder how long it will take before it is seriously considered.
At the other end of the spectrum some airlines have introduced what has colloquially been termed “chub class.” In an effort to accommodate the expanding waistline of Western flyers Airbus is increasing the size of aisle seats to 20 inches wide on its A320 jets while decreasing middle and window seats by one inch. The premium wide seat will be sold at for an extra US$10.
Weight Reduction
Scoot Airlines, based out of Singapore has recently removed television monitors from airplane seats replacing them with Apple iPads. The television monitors and associated electronics are reported to weigh two metric tonnes. According to Bloomberg this has enabled the airline to add 40 percent more seating while decreasing the weight of a fully loaded flight by seven percent.
Extra Charges Everywhere
Traditionally the most successful airlines traded on glamour and providing a service experience. Recent trends however show that airlines are increasingly moving towards a no-frills approach in an effort to cut expenses. To do this airlines are imposing costs on everything possible under the thin veil of “increased consumer choice.” Changes seen over the last few years include the removal of a complimentary item of check-in luggage, the removal of complimentary meals and extra charges for window seats and seats towards the front of the plane. The iPads on Scoot flights mentioned above will cost US$17 to hire for the flight.
Recommendations from a 2005 study suggest that a low-cost strategy should no longer be considered an exception but should rather become the norm for the airline industry. We can see this recommendation playing out today with the stripping of services from flights shifting to an almost purely user pays model.
Case Study: The Air New Zealand Situation
A good example of this new user pays model is Air New Zealand. In 2010 they changed to single class short haul flights with radically rebundled fares. Travellers can now choose from one of four options beginning with a seat, one 7kg carry-on bag, tea, coffee and water and access to some entertainment options but no new release entertainment. At the other end they have the ‘Works Deluxe’ which allows two priority bags, a carry-on bag, meal and drinks, a seat request, a guaranteed empty seat next to the passenger, premium check in, lounge access and better entertainment options.
Being the most innovative airline company does not necessarily make you the most profitable. Air New Zealand announced a 71 percent earning slump in February 2012. As part of it’s recovery plan the company announced it was cutting 441 jobs. The airline blamed a decrease in passenger numbers as well as as fuel costs NZ$173 million more than forecast. This is despite the airline enjoying “a solid performance from the domestic network including benefits from the Rugby World Cup and improved market share on the Tasman” according to Air New Zealand chairman, John Palmer.
The outgoing chief executive Rob Fyfe says the price of jet fuel has doubled over the last three years and due to the weak global economy it has been difficult to pass on the higher costs to passengers.The inflation adjusted average price of jet fuel was US$3.04 per gallon for the six months to December 31st. Going off jet fuel prices alone it is unlikely the airline will see much of a turn around in profitability for 2012. In the first six months of 2012 the average price barely moved, up US$0.04 to $US3.08.
The full year earnings are not released until the end of August but the few media releases coming out of Air New Zealand the last few months are beginning to sound increasingly desperate. On 19th July 2012 Fyfe and Palmer called for an “urgent review” of New Zealand tourism. Palmer told Parliament's finance and expenditure committee that despite operational improvements (newspeak for job cuts), Air New Zealand's financial performance was not healthy and decreased expenditure was yet to be reflected in its currently "disappointing" share price.
Air New Zealand is looking to focus on its domestic, Australian and Pacific service as these have been the most economically sustainable. According to Fyfe, "An aircraft flying to London and back, a 777-300, it costs $1.25 million to get that aircraft to London and back and over 50% of the cost of fuel, a 737 flying to Auckland - Wellington about 23% of the cost is fuel."
The Global Situation
Globally the situation does not look much better. Some Middle Eastern airlines and Asian carriers are still recording strong growth but they are the exception. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) revised the Middle Eastern profit forecast in March 2012 from USD300 million to USD500 million assuming jet fuel prices stay stable. A spike in oil prices could however could turn the forecast profit into a USD200 million loss for the region’s airlines. According to the IATA average oil prices could reach as high as US$135 per barrel this year in the unlikely event of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices this high would create a US$5.3billion loss for the global aviation industry.
U.S. airline profits have historically followed a cyclical profit-loss pattern of three to five years since U.S. deregulation in 1978. Profit margins have always been thin, sitting at 1.6% during the 1980s and only 1.0% for the period between 1990 and 2000. The early 2000s however saw economic downturn accompanied by huge industry-wide losses of $7 billion in 2001, $7.5 billion in 2002, and $5.3 billion in 2003. The impact of 9/11 and the associated changes to the way airlines run as well as the Dot-com crash cannot be denied either. Between 2000 and 2005 the industry plunged into record operating losses of $40 billion in total.
Figure 1: World economic growth and airline profit margins: 1970 to 2011. Source: IATA Financial Monitor for Jan/Feb-2012 released on 01-Mar-2012, sourcing IATA, ICAO & Haver.
Figure 1 clearly illustrates the cyclical nature of the airline industry. Whenever world GDP growth drops below two percent this is reflected by the net post-tax profit margin turning negative.
The director general and CEO of IATA, Tony Tyler, has cautioned that global GDP is not expected to pass two percent in 2012. “The risk of a worsening Eurozone crisis has been replaced by an equally toxic risk – rising oil prices. Already the damage is being felt with a downgrade in industry profits to $3.0 billion… With GDP growth projections now at 2.0%...it will not take much of a shock to push the industry into the red for 2012,” Mr Tyler said.
Rising fuel costs have taken a massive chunk out of the airline industries profit margins. The cost of jet fuel closely maps that of crude oil prices. This means that when prices are high at the local pump the airline companies are also hurting.
The IATA has forecast the airline 2012 fuel bill is expected to be $US213 billion, equivalent to 34 percent of total operating costs. The IATA fuel price average for 2012 is currently $US128.6 per barrel which is estimated to add an extra $US31billion onto the forecast 2012 jet fuel bill.
These IATA forecasts illustrate the fragility of the airline industry. Profitability is an elusive prospect for the industry with the IATA commenting that “the best collective margin of the last decade of 2.9% (2007 and 2010) does not cover the cost of capital”. Cargo traffic around the globe declined 1.9 percent in May 2012 compared to May last year. Cargo traffic generated US$66 billion in 2010 but has declined every month since May 2011. “Business and consumer confidence are falling,” Tyler said. “And we are seeing the first signs of that in slowing demand and softer load factors. This does not bode well for industry profitability.”
Dirty Air
If airlines are struggling this much with the current economic conditions it is almost certain that a globally unified approach to carbon taxing would cripple the industry. A report from 2008 found that airlines were emitting 20 percent more carbon dioxide than previously estimated. This could grow to 1.5 billion tons a year by 2025, far more that the worst cast IPCC predictions. As a comparison the entire European Union currently emits 3.1 billion tons of CO2 annually. This emission prediction does assume that oil prices will stay relatively low and that economic growth gets back on track, two assumptions that are looking increasingly unlikely.
Travel While You Can
Environmental concerns aside if you want to travel anywhere in the next five years now is the time to do it. The global economy is extremely fragile at the moment. Petroleum deliveries are at their lowest point since September 2008, with the weakest July demand since 2005 and yet Brent crude prices are still sitting above $US116 per barrel. This is not to mention the impending US “fiscal cliff” where $600bn in tax increases and spending cuts come into effect on January 1, 2013. Unless the US Congress comes to some kind of agreement on raising the debt ceiling again by the end of this year GDP growth could be reduced by four percent, plunging the US into recession. Europe is cannot escape its current quaqmire without huge upheaval and there is now talk that France will be the next to crumble leaving Germany on its own. China’s growth has slowed to a three year low of 7.6 per cent with little sign of recovery in the next few months.
This is all bad news for airlines that are already combatting high fuel prices. I expect to see a number of big name airlines fold or amalgamate in the next two years as financiers can no longer afford to prop up an industry that is hemorrhaging with no relief in sight. This could mean a reduced number of flights, less options of places to travel and skyrocketing ticket prices. While mother nature might thank us for the reduction in emissions the airline industry is running on empty.
The 90th Flying Training Squadron plays an integral role in accomplishing the 80th Flying Training Wing's mission of producing the world's best pilots for the NATO alliance in the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program.
"We teach advanced jet pilot training for ENJJPT on the T-38," said Lt. Col. John Moran, 90th FTS commander. "We have instructor pilots from seven different countries flying with us right now, including the United States, Italy, Spain, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada."
Moran said his squadron teaches 51 ENJJPT students who fly about 120 sorties per day on the squadron's 46 T-38 aircraft. Students learn advanced maneuvers in the T-38, beginning in simulators, and continuing with an instructor seated behind the student in the actual aircraft. Students must learn the maneuvers and be able to perform them before being allowed to advance to the next set of skills.
"It's their first time flying a jet, so they have to think a lot faster and process more information," said Italian air force Lt. Col. Vincenzo Tozzi, 90th FTS director of operations and a 1995 graduate of the ENJJPT program. "The greatest thing about it is at the end of their training, we get to see them walk across the stage with wings on their chests."
Moran said much of the training occurs not in the actual flight, but in briefings before sorties and in debriefings afterward.
"They'll spend about an hour and 15 minutes before the sortie and then will get the most out of the flight in the debriefing afterward, learning about what they did during the flight and how to improve," Moran said.
The squadron also trains pilots on how to become an instructor in a three-month course, Moran said, including teaching ENJJPT-specific training information.
"It's a constant learning process," Moran said. "It's a different experience because you're in the back seat, instructing and evaluating the student."
Both Moran and Tozzi said getting to train with NATO member nations in a joint environment at the 80th FTW and in the squadron helps ensure smooth missions later, when pilots from the U.S., Italy and other nations are already familiar with each other and have the same basis upon which to work together.
"We have the same mindset on getting things done. When I flew missions in Bosnia and Kosovo, I flew with people I had trained with here, and everything was standardized," Tozzi said.
Along with spending 10 to 12 hours a day training, Moran said the squadron members participate in community service projects like the Project Thanksgiving food drive, where last year personnel collected 1,200 pounds of food. He said the squadron also was home to the most designated "professional performers" of any squadron in the 80th FTW's Air Education and Training Command Consolidated Unit Inspection in May.
NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented whistleblowing act, former Indian Airlines chief Sunil Arora wrote to the then cabinet secretary B K Chaturvedi in May 2005 complaining that he and the IA board were being pressured by then civil aviation minister Praful Patel and his OSD to take financially damaging and commercially unviable decisions.
In his May 28, 2005, letter, Arora listed the decisions on which the board was overruled: purchasing more jets than required, disallowing IA to fly on viable routes to make way for other operators and, even "changing the seating configuration" to favour a particular aircraft manufacturer.
Two Lok Sabha MPs, Prabodh Panda (CPI) and Nishikant Dubey (BJP) have now approached the CVC for a probe into Arora's allegations, saying the government has failed to act.
"I would like to place before you a series of events and certain directions given to me by my immediate superior officer and the minister of civil aviation which have a vital bearing on certain critical decisions being taken in Indian Airlines and Air India... I have been constrained to write in detail to be able to explain the nuances of the verbal directions, the infirmities in the subsequent decisions taken and my consequent sense of unease in the matter," Arora wrote.
He also expressed apprehension over the consequence of his action. "Sir, kindly pardon my impertinence but I implore you to share the contents of this communication only with the Prime Minister... I would not have taken the liberty of making such a suggestion but for the fact that like every mortal, I fear for my personal and family safety."
Complaining of pressure, Arora said, "During the last one year, almost all board meetings of Air India, and even some board meetings of Airports Authority of India have become a farce. Instructions on key agenda items are communicated before hand on telephone or personally by minister, civil aviation, or by his OSD K N Choubey. No suggestions to the effect, that the issue in question requires a more detailed examination or that there are some implications are countenanced. The key word is 'immediate and unquestioned compliance'." Some of the most glaring instances are cited:
"AI discussed their dry leasing plans in 99th board meeting held in Mumbai on 17.7.04. Prior to this meeting, minister spoke to me... said since he and secretary, civil aviation, were satisfied about the correctness of the plans, it is expected that we should immediately endorse it during the board meeting. When I tried to tell him on telephone that the agenda item raises some issues, I was curtly asked to endorse the proposal and a counter question was posed on the telephone that when the minister and the secretary himself are satisfied, what more is there for us to see?"
Arora further wrote that the minister forced him to seek flight slots for IA to the UK and the US during the winter schedule instead of the profitable summer schedule even as private airlines were allowed to fly to these destinations in the summer.
"There is a clear mismatch between the reply given before the members of Parliament and the real facts. On 18.01.05, I got a message to immediately speak to the minister on telephone at his Mumbai landline... There was a conversation which went on for 15 to 20 minutes and minister civil aviation clearly told us not to file for flights to London, for the summer schedule 2005. He started by saying that since Indian Airlines does not have wide-bodied aircraft, it would not be advisable for Indian Airlines to apply for the slots at this stage.
I politely remonstrated that none of the other airlines, which have been permitted to go abroad viz Jet and Sahara, had wide-bodied aircraft till that time and if they can be considered for flights to London, Indian Airlines being the national carrier, should at least be given equal footing, if not precedence. The response on the other side was that, Indian Airlines should apply for flights to London or for other UK and US destinations only from the winter schedule."
