Dear Mr Prime Minister,

It has almost been two years since you reassured the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort while addressing the nation on the occasion of Independence Day that requisite help will be extended to Air India for its survival. We in Air India were particularly relieved at those assuring words. I am not sure how updated are you about the real state of the national carrier now. As the condition of Air India has gone from bad to worse on all key performance parameters since your statement, I wish to share the real facts so that at a later stage no one in the prime minister's office can say that the real facts were not brought to your kind notice in time for your intervention.

Air India’s losses have been on the rise and the airline has now begun to default even on interest payments. All other airlines in India and abroad have seen their losses going down in the same period.

The much talked about turnaround plan has been a non-starter.

Passengers’ perception of the airline is at its nadir with most having given up on Air India.

Air India has been luring passengers only by offering low fares, adversely affecting financial viability. The airline has been low on productivity of men and machines, nowhere close to industry benchmarks or even its own past track record.

The employees’ morale is virtually non-existent.

Simply put, the airline is in the pits with more and people losing hope regarding the airline’s ability to survive. Whilst some have in their wisdom already concluded that the airline is gradually heading towards an imminent closure by looking at the way in which the airline is being managed, I would like to go a little further and aver that the airline is being systematically killed in broad daylight by those administering it, and possibly even those who are monitoring the airline's performance.

I wish to elaborate on this for better understanding of the harsh realities.

Given the critical situation of the airline one would have expected the airline to be administered efficiently, steps being taken to upgrade the services at all customer interface points, concerted efforts being made to enhance revenues, seriousness being reflected at all levels of management – Board to the lowest level of employees, so that the imminent financial bankruptcy staring the airline could be averted. It is shocking to see that no such efforts are being made by the management as a consequence of which the airline is sinking, and sinking fast. Why is this being allowed? Somebody needs to answer this question! If we keep attributing this to global trends and ignore the ground realities, I am sorry to say that we will only be hoodwinking ourselves.

Anyone with even a modicum of economic sense would know that to be on the path of recovery, the gap between income and expenditure has to be gradually bridged, not widened. Two valuable years for turning around the airline have gone by since your statement but there is no sign of efforts for revival on the horizon by increasing revenues. The entire thrust seems to be on cutting costs and seeking aid from the government which while giving a short term relief just cannot be a permanent solution to the woes of Air India.

It is common knowledge that for generating higher revenues and igniting hope for any revival, the product quality has to match that of the competition. Notwithstanding the new fleet, the product is nowhere close to that offered by either private airlines operating in India or the international carriers with which Air India is competing globally. Sadly enough, product quality does not seem to be a priority or an essential requisite for turning around as is evident from the way customer services related departments are being managed or mismanaged, knowingly or by default.

Lack of vision
In the airline industry, the product quality is to a significant extent constituted by the ground experience i.e. when a passenger checks in for a flight and after he disembarks; the on-board experience i.e. food, wines, warmth of service, in-flight entertainment besides a neat and fresh ambience in the aircraft. I wish to apprise you of the total lack of efforts on these fronts which compels me to conclude that Air India as a product is not suffering by default but the future of the airline is being deliberately and systematically sabotaged. Please look at the factual position as it exists in Air India.
Ground Services Department and the Customer Services Department, responsible for ground services and on-board services respectively, are being neglected like never before. If these two departments are regarded to be having no significant role to play in refurbishing the product, it only shows that the management has no clue of what the airline business is all about.

Inexperienced and part-time heads for key customer-related departments
The ground service department after seeing multiple changes in the past two years at the departmental head level is today headed by an IPS officer, Mr SCMathur, on deputation to Air India for looking after security department. Can you believe this! Besides the fact that he has no experience in the field of customer services how can a part-time head (in addition to security) do justice to the demanding job of ensuring good quality experience for passengers. Why has the department been subjected to such frequent changes under the present chairman and finally entrusted to an IPS officer? To improve or destroy!

Likewise, the customer services department has witnessed four changes in two years – Manjira Khurana, Capt AKSharma, Chitra Sarkar and is now headed by Director- Operations, on part-time basis, who besides being in charge of administering the operations department also undertakes international flights and is hence away from headquarters. How many hours can the incumbent Captain AS Soman devote besides the fact that he has no experience of what in-flight service is all about. Instead of upgrading on-board services to match competition, the services have deteriorated considerably in the past few months.

These two illustrative examples of how key customer-oriented departments are being managed should convince anyone that the management is not at all serious in ensuring a good product for getting more passengers to fly Air India, which will eventually translate into higher revenues. While enhancement of revenues ought to have been the top most priority for an airline in deep financial crisis, what we are witnessing today is just the opposite - the management is paying no attention and is having the departments managed by inexperienced officers on part time basis. Am I not therefore correct in my analysis that Air India's future is being sabotaged? What surprises me even more is that there is no one to question the management about such absurd placements defying all logic and sense.

Human resources department, the weak link – managed by heads with no HR background
In a service industry, employees have a key role to play. Human resources department, therefore, has to perform a major role in motivating employees, introducing innovative work practices and ensuring teamwork in a challenging situation that Air India faces today. The HR department has been virtually destroyed in the past two years. Whilst the airline had Anup Srivastava as Director-Personnel, selected by the Public Enterprises Selection Board, till a few weeks ago, he had been sidelined with no work entrusted to him. The Personnel work was first given as an additional charge to the Head of Medical Services Department, an MBBS doctor, yes MBBS doctor, and later to Mr V Srikrishnan, who belonged to the Materials Management cadre. The incumbent, having no managerial accomplishments to boast, has only strictures from Chief Vigilance Commission on record for flagrant violation of tendering procedures and causing loss to Air India.

Why such experimentation unless of course the objective is to hasten the pace of Air India's demise? With no proper thinking on HR policies how does one get the best out of the employees, most of whom are as it is a demoralised lot. There is no dearth of similar examples involving other departments; they are also in a state of total disarray as a consequence of which the aircraft utilization is much below industry standards, passengers are being lured through 'attractive' (Please read low) fares with no marketing schemes or efforts to get passengers to patronize Air India. The softer option of seeking more and more financial aid to tide over the current crisis can't be the ultimate solution. Air India has to work towards generating higher revenues.

Is anyone accountable for sinking Air India?
With this kind of a shoddy performance on all fronts being allowed to go unchecked, even though the airline's performance is said to be being monitored by the Committee of Secretaries, how else can one infer but to state that Air India's existence is being sabotaged with the government, as its owner, unfortunately being a mute spectator.

It is therefore my earnest plea that lest Air India becomes a further disgrace for the nation and the blame for the same is placed at your doorsteps, there is a need to act with a sense of extreme urgency and getting the Chairman of Air India to perform for Air India's survival and not otherwise; and to also hold those responsible for wayward decisions affecting Air India's fortunes accountable.

I would while looking forward to your response like to reiterate for your satisfaction that I stand by every word that I have stated in this earnest plea to you for your urgent intervention.

Warm regards.

Yours sincerely,

Jitender Bhargava,
Former executive director, Air India.

RELATED STORIES

Read Jitender Bhargava's prescient piece on the urgent need to resuscitate the national carrier which first appeared in the May 1-15, 2010 issue of Governance Now magazine.

As Bikram Vohra wrote in the same issue, Air India's decline began way back in the 1980s when the management started using the carrier for the benefit the few.

If private airlines funtion more professionally, it is simply because they are managed differently, as Praveen Paul argued.