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All the hard work put in by you and your team at Air India is paying off. The year 2006 has been a year of awards and distinctions for Air India…
Yes, it indeed has been. We were awarded the “Best international west bound airline out of India” for the second consecutive year by Galileo Indian Express Travel World Awards in 2006. We received a special category award recognizing “the most significant corporate social responsibility initiative taken by an organization”. We received the Reader’s Digest Award for being the “Most Trusted Airline” and the Awaaz Consumer Award for being the “Most Preferred International Airline”.
Even Dun and Beadstreet ranked you highly…
Yes, we were ranked first as per total income in the aviation sector for the 2006 edition of the Dun and Beadstreet publication for India’s top 500
companies.
You look forward to the merger of Air India with Indian…
The merger is the Government’s prerogative. But yes, we see many advantages in the integration of the fleets, especially in terms of value addition, opportunity and pooling of resources.
Please elaborate…
There will be rationalization of flights. At present, both Air India and Indian fly the same sectors, almost competing against one another. Once we are together, then we can bring down number of flights in the same direction, rearrange timings, and the freed capacity is then able to fly in other directions, increasing our global presence. There will also be sharing of office space and office resources. We’ll be operating out of the same terminal in future. The higher fleet size will mean increased market share, and make us more competitive.
The new aircraft that have started coming in will only add to your fleet strength and market competitiveness…
Yes, while some of the existing aircraft on lease will be gradually phased out, the newer wide-bodied aircraft will put our immediate strength in the vicinity of 125, at some point in time even more.
There is a lot of code-sharing that has taken place between Air India and other international carriers…
Yes it not only helps in burning points in partner airlines, but also now makes travel to several corners of the world to others totally seamless.
With Air Canada pulling out of the Indian skies, you’ll be in a position to take advantage of the Canadian traffic that wants to fly India and the other way round…
We are still looking into it. We have a shortage of aircraft at the moment. Once that is sorted, we should be in a position to fly more frequently out of Canada.
But you have been able to expand your network to other destinations since the year 2002…
We have expanded to cover Newark and Los Angeles in addition to New York and Chicago in the United States. The capacity has also been increased from 10 to 28 flights per week. Likewise, flights to the United Kingdom have been increased from 10 to 27. Frequencies have also been significantly enhanced on the South East Asia and Far East routes.
People say that there has been a change in the work culture of Air India that you’ve brought about…
Yes, along with hardware changes, there is indeed a big, perceptible difference in the work culture. Every employee knows that it is a competitive market, and that healthy bottom lines will ensure stability of jobs. So everyone is moving in that direction.
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Chairman and Managing Director, Air India Mr. V. Thulasidas was in New Delhi awaiting the Union Cabinet decision on the merger of Air India and Indian (finally the cabinet approved the merger) and took time out to speak with INDIA EMPIRE Editor Sayantan Chakravarty. Excerpts from the interview:
