I second Shonalee. For those who think that Air India should be flying to help keep the fares low, thats a load of crap. It was only after the private airlines entered, that fares came down. A flight from GOI to DEL was 14,000 compared to 6000 now. If you book early, its 4000. There was no such option before. If the pilots have a problem with their salaries, leave and seek employment elsewhere. Holding the passengers to ransom only shows how self centred you are, and will not serve to improve your image. I am a travel agent in Goa, and all I have done these past 3 days is cancel bookings, process refunds and rebook flights for my passengers. Its nothing new to me, I have done it loads of times before, and always thanks to flight disruptions or cancellations of only one airline......you guessed it, its always pain in the neck Air India. I suppose its only fair.....you get what you pay for. And for those who speak of national carrier and national pride. Its private airlines like Kingfisher and Jet Airways that are always sought by all my foreign clientele, who are all praise for the service that they provide. Air India is the "National Disgrace", the sooner they are shut down, the better.
There was a time when Air India claimed that it could not serve its passengers properly as their aircraft were too old and they did not have enough aircraft. Now they say that the new aircraft are a burden!
However, Air India can easily turn around if it ensures safety, punctuality and service. By service, I do not mean that anyone should behave like a slave. Air Indis staff should do their job with a smile and look after the legitimate needs of their passengers.
There is no point in saying that profitable routes were taken away from Air India. Can you name a few? Air India can always resume flights on these routes, now that Mr Praful Patel is no longer the civil aviation minister.
By giving away profitable routes to private airlines and mis-managing it..etc. What knowledge these goons have to run an organization like this..? They all wants to make money out of it as the scams cannot be traceable and employees are not concentrated in any constituency to get the help politically and that is the reason why they opt for this ministry.
Re: Ministers sitting on top made millions...
by Prem Mohan on Apr 29, 2011 07:07 PM
Please explain what you mean by "giving away routes to private airlines"? Can you name a few? In reality, it is just that Air India's monopoly on Mid=East routes has been removed. Air India is free to compete with other airlines.
Re: Ministers sitting on top made millions...
by JOSEPH DSOUZA on Apr 29, 2011 08:20 PM
There is no such thing as "giving away profitable routes" Its better performance by private airlines that is wiping Air India out of the skies. And why not? Its competition that keeps fares affordable to the common man, Air India has never considered the "common man" in their scheme of things, only the "govt babu man". I can give you a concrete example of what the so called low-cost carrier can achieve. The GOI-DEL was once operated only by IC as a direct flight and then by S2(Sahara, now Jetlite) and then King Fisher. Due to the competiton from Go-air, Indigo and Spice Jet, mind you, all low cost carriers, all these "full fledged" carriers had to close shop on these routes, and if you bother to check, today, only these three "low cost carrier" operate direct flights on the GOI-DEL sector. That is the power of healthy competition and good pricing. And who benefits at the end of the day?? The common man, thats you and me
Re: Re: Ministers sitting on top made millions...
by Praveen Namboodiri on Apr 30, 2011 12:00 AM
It is altogether a different story brother. Air India (erstwhile IA) is a Wonderful airline... be it the aircraft or manpower skill. Even private carriers FULLY depend on the skills of IA to keep their aircraft healthy. This is a lot political. Do you know that IA was used as a source of route experimenting?? i.e. whenever a new route was to be opened, they would deploy IA to start it. If the route makes good money, then the route would be given to private carriers and IA would have to stop it. If the route fails to find passenger traffic, then the loss incured would be solely IA's and the media keeps reporting unanimously that IA has been loosing crores !! The real story of things is always different. Never trust the media.
An organization headed by vision less but Pratibhaless pratibhatized Politicians and aided by their own henchmen with / without reservation policy backing ably supported by never justice provider system of justice which has reckless highly paid highly paid hi fi society of alchoholics driven by dirty thoughts towards labour rights.such organization rarely serves hence should be liquidated and all such thoughtless striking personalities should be summarily dismissed.India can not afford to tolerate such indescplined organzation any longer.
DOES INDIA NEED AN NATIONAL CARRIER...IF YES..THEN DO WE HAVE TO SUSTAIN IT EVEN AT AN LOSS..IF YES THEN STOP WORRYING ABOUT IT..
IF NO THEN...WHO IS TO BLAME..
IN MY UNDERSTANDING THE DELHI BOSSES ARE THE REASON WHY THIS IS FAILING...THE HINDI MOBS WHO RULE THE ROOST IN THESE AREAS...THE POLITICAL MASS WHO CONTROL AND MISUSE THIS NATIONAL CARRIER AS AN TRANSPORT FOR THEIR KITH KIN AND PARTY..
THE MINUTE THE NATIONAL CARRIER IS SOLD TO ANY PRIVATE PARTY THE SAME LOSS MAKING AIRLINES CAN BECOME PROFITABLE..THIS SIMPLY MEANS SOMEONE IN THE GOVT IS ITSELF MAKING THIS NATIONAL CARRIER INTO LOSSES..
WE HAVE SEEN MANY LOSS MAKING GOVT FIRMS MIRACULOUSLY TURN INTO PROFT MAKING GEMS ONCE SOLD OFF TO PRIVATE FIRMS..HEHEHEHE
SO SOME ONE IS ENJOYING WHILE BLEEDING THESE GOVT FIRMS...
Privatize the Air India/Indian Airlines ! Gave them enough chances to come in the 'green' but in turn have always 'sunk' deeper in 'red'. Enough of funds pumped in to 'revive' it ! Revive it for what? for whom? The Ministry, the politicians, the Chiefs ? And why should "we" keep paying for it, and for how long ? Get over with it once and for all. The Govt should call for the bids (Global Invitation) and wash its hands off. Am sure, we'll stop bleeding further and shall in turn collect a handsome amount too !
As usual rediff has made another blunder. Its the other way around. The pilots of Indian airlines are on strike, as they want same pay package like pilots of Air India. Poor Shonalee. ha ha ha.
Re: Horrible Rediff
by JOSEPH DSOUZA on Apr 29, 2011 08:10 PM
Wrong again Tapas, Indian Airlines was merged with Air India and the entity is now called NACIL: the National Aviation Company of India Ltd. Until end Feb of this year, they still flew with different Codes, IC and AI, but since then, all IC flights have been renamed to carry the AI flight code only. It is the ex-IC pilots who are on strike, but now very much Air India. So its a house divided in itself............shooting themselves in the foot?????
Re: Re: Horrible Rediff
by Shake Hasina on Apr 30, 2011 11:15 AM
But rediff says:
The pilots of Indian Airlines were paid more and they continued to be paid more. Pay parity was never introduced. And so the pilots of erstwhile Air India are on strike.
When in fact the ex-IC pilots who are paid less and are shamelessly on strike to further bleed NACIL: the National Aviation Company of India Ltd.
Recently travel by Air India only was mandatory while flying on Govt expence wheatger on duty or LTC.A cumbersome procedure to ontain OK form Civil aviation ministry to fly any other air line when places were not connected.Since OK was allmost impossible to get on was forced to travel either by train or take a longer route by ain india.Inspite of all this the air line was in red.
Well said Shonalee.......give these idiots more time, and they will bleed us even more. Shut them down, the sooner the better. I am a travel agent in Goa and all I have done these past 3 days is waste my time cancelling tickets booked with Air India and processing refunds and finding alternate options for my passengers. Thats nothing new for me, I have done it loads of times before, and its always the same airline that gave me a headache......you guessed it, Air India.
Re: AIR INDIA............THE FIGURES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
by Prem Mohan on Apr 29, 2011 06:57 PM
In SE Asia, two airlines were well know for their unpredictability: Garuda and Air India. Garuda has improved beyond measure. We are now waiting for Air India to improve under the guidance of the new Civil Aviation Minister. (Mr Praful Patel has a bad reputation).
Re: Re: AIR INDIA............THE FIGURES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
by raja sunder on Apr 29, 2011 07:24 PM
IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN? WE HAVE ANOTHER ROUTE TO WORRY? ROUTE TO ROME/
