[vigsom]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

- cabin crew of Air India are competent mind you.
- engineers & technical staff on the ground are good men and women,have engineering competence
- When ever I have recruited ex-Air India engineers & technicians after a run in period they have almost always been superb.
- Pilots - competent

+1 to that, @V.Narayan Sir. I've always associated pilots' skills with handling as smooth as possible landings in difficult weather.

I remember an AI flight that I took from Bengaluru to Mumbai in Feb-2006, and the pilot - in - command was Capt. Kersi Machhi( not sure if I got the name right). Another unforgettable one was with Capt.Rustom Palia in command of AI 101 Delhi - New York(JFK), Capt.Sushant Singh and two other pilots in Sep-2018. They lost instrument landing systems and had to land using a NAV approach in bad weather(low clouds) with low fuel and eventually landed at Newark(EWR). I have always associated Air India staff with competence. Just that lazy practices and a chalta hai attitude made them that way.

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

- the flight will hopefully be manned by a courteous crew full of youth and synergy to prop up airlines' sagging image.

- the age old, rickety white and orange Air India, Tata buses plying in several airports will hopefully make way for chic and contemporary buses, though again from Tata (never mind)

From what I've seen at airports in the last 5 years, Volvo low floor buses operate as shuttles for Air India in the bigger airports. The last I flew Air India was on an old A320 in Jun-2018. Everything was good, cabin crew was all young, energetic, smart, well behaved and the snack they served was outstanding (another Air India plus was the excellent food that they served). Their check in baggage allowance was also good at 25kgs. I'll always love to fly Air India if they provide more flight options even if it means flying leaner and with less frills.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by dust-n-bones

the govt should dissolve its civil aviation ministry. It made morose sense while the govt treated Air India as a free ride. We now need an effective regulator (DGCA), not a ministry

Aviation still carries the unwritten apology of being an elitist industry in our country, where politicians love to romance poverty and underprivileged based on their selective needs. I think we need the ministry to focus on aviation as a critical core sector with the requisite infrastructure building and regulation .

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Human resources - the cabin crew of Air India are competent mind you. The job of the cabin crew is safety not drinks and snacks. I'd bet on Air India cabin crew over those of say Spicejet or Go Air any day.

The only time I've flown in AI was on a Boeing 777-300ER flight from Delhi to Jeddah back when my father was working there, I must say the service overall was excellent compared to what I was used in Saudia airlines in the same route which flew an older 777-200 and the overall service & cabin was very stale. The AI 777 certainly felt newer & better maintained and the crew much more courteous & friendly, even the food was much better. So, I am sure given the right impetus and management, AI can rival the likes of Qantas, Lufthansa & BA in the lucrative east-west routes.

But I've flown on AIX as well a couple of times and the service was terrible compared to the competition. This may be anecdotal but I flew AIX thrice and there were delays every time! It seems the work cultures in AI and AIX are completely different. But then AIX is already a cash cow thanks to the lucrative Gulf-Kerala route.

Originally Posted by vigsom

Another unforgettable one was with Capt.Rustom Palia in command of AI 101 Delhi - New York(JFK), Capt.Sushant Singh and two other pilots in Sep-2018. They lost instrument landing systems and had to land using a NAV approach in bad weather(low clouds) with low fuel and eventually landed at Newark(EWR).

That was quite the feat. You can really hear how calm the pilots were in this ATC recording. Not sure if a general characteristic of a pilot to not panic or its just these gentlemen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-4CSfwcQ_M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG2T1kXOCHU

[itsbaman]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

'the bureaucrat knows best' and 'the private sector cannot help build the nation'. Those philosophies were, IMHO, humbug the real morive was power and access to favours and those bureaucrats and politicians in 1953 knew that.

One pocket that may not be happy will be the AI pilots who have repeatedly displayed the willingness to hold the airline and the nation to ransom for their demands. Thank God we will not have 'master of all trades' IAS officers trying to run an airline after stepping out of the Dept of Animal Husbandry.

I work in a central PSU and even I know privatization is the way forward now and is inevitable. Privatisation may make us little uncomfortable in the begining but we will all fall in line eventually. And echoing your sentiments, I am very much glad that private firms don't hire IAS for everything. Unfortunately and frustratingly, in my state every state PSU, even power sector, is headed by an IAS, which has no domain expertise, and not a single state PSU is profitable.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by itsbaman

I work in a central PSU and even I know privatization is the way forward now and is inevitable. Privatisation may make us little uncomfortable in the begining but we will all fall in line eventually. And echoing your sentiments, I am very much glad that private firms don't hire IAS for everything. Unfortunately and frustratingly, in my state every state PSU, even power sector, is headed by an IAS, which has no domain expertise, and not a single state PSU is profitable.

Thank you for your inputs. In my opinion there are several very good PSUs doing yeoman service and serving the nation in ways most private sector would not. Some industries do need one strong PSU to always be there to keep the private sector in line and to serve the unserved - banking, insurance, telecom, railways, healthcare, shipping {maybe}, oil, power and several more. In several PSUs you find individuals who are gems with solid experience and training but stuck in a poor system. I have recruited folks from Air India and HAL who blossomed in our private sector environment and almost without exception I would extend their retirement to age 68 to retain their talent. I'll reserve my views and analysis of the IAS as that may be too off topic and a wee bit controversial. Mind you the IAS's false belief that they are 'can do everything' people is a affliction the other Govt services do not suffer from. And there is a reason for that. But off topic sadly.

[himanshugoswami]

To all those dissing PSUs in general (warranted in most cases, granted) and AI in particular, allow me to share a small perspective. I happen to have some very close relatives and friends who are with AI, both in management roles as well as pilots(all Sr. commanders or instructors now). Without exception, the general feedback I have received from them is that AI pilots and cabin crew are FAR better trained than any airline in India. AI actually spends the highest amount per personnel on training of its crew as compared to even many international airlines. case in point was the Dreamliner. AI pilots were among the first to get certified on the Dreamliner globally as AI booked the slots as soon as Boeing opened them.

At a more personal level, my first international flight was in 1988 and that was on AI B747 to LHR. As I was accompanying one of my parents on their official assignment, I had the privilege of flying on the first floor deck of the 747. that day on to date, wherever AI flies on an intl sector, its my preferred choice of carrier, PROVIDED, the aircraft is a wide body. there is a distinct experience difference in AI when you fly a wide body vs a single aisle.

In my last international trip pre pandemic, I flew to London on AI and I was gobsmacked when the Airhostess offered me Henessey post dinner. I remember remarking to my co-passenger-"no wonder they are running into losses!!" even the much vaunted SIA or Emirates has not offered henessey to me to date (maybe they thought I wasn't worthy enough? )

All in all, AI, esp on international sectors, is a very fine carrier. Under Tata, it will hopefully get better and regain its glory of yore!

[Theyota]

Originally Posted by itsbaman

Unfortunately and frustratingly, in my state every state PSU, even power sector, is headed by an IAS, which has no domain expertise, and not a single state PSU is profitable.

It is not just the PSUs that are impacted by this archaic practice of posting IAS/IPS obsoletes in the leadership positions. Even inside the government departments, these jacks of no trades have become a massive slack to carry along.

Take our paramilitary forces (CRPF, BSF, ITBP, etc) for example. Majority of the DIG and above level positions are occupied by IPS cadre folks who have barely any kind of field experience. The ones who start off as Asst. Commandant (which are also equivalent pay grades at the start of the career) and spend there whole careers on the field have to be very lucky to go beyond DIG positions. I can't think of one reason for why having an IPS officer leading ITBP or BSF would protect our borders better than a person who has specialized himself in that particular force.

My rant is not personal against these officers. They go through insane amount of hard work and competition to pass their UPSC exams and get their jobs. They are all very bright people who would probably been significantly more successful if they had picked something different to do. My rant is against our archaic system of para-dropping them on top of everything without any competence.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by itsbaman

And echoing your sentiments, I am very much glad that private firms don't hire IAS for everything.

Instead they hire MBAs for everything.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Mind you the IAS's false belief that they are 'can do everything' people is a affliction the other Govt services do not suffer from. And there is a reason for that. But off topic sadly.

IAS are the MBAs of government service.

This is my personal opinion, other feel free to differ.

IAS folks are primarily trained in social economics, their goal: Social Justice at the cost of profit.
MBA folks are primarily trained in business economics, their goal: Profits at the cost of everything, except laws/regulations.

This is why IAS generally suck at running businesses. But then governments shouldn't really be running organizations that compete with private businesses. Government should stick to running non-commercial organizations like military, police, RTO, tax department, etc. That is where folks with UPSC training are really useful.

Same goes for MBA folks, they should be kept away from government too. Whenever a businessman gets elected and becomes a minister, they create chaos too. They don't understand government's primary job is social justice, and not profit. This confusion arises because government owns plenty of organizations that are trying to compete with private businesses.

Private companies can't survive for long if they are loss making, that means inefficiency is punished. But government owned business can keep losing money forever since they have access to taxpayer funds. That is why government owned businesses can stay dysfunctional and still survive. Inefficiency is not punished at all.

So I am very happy AI is back with Tata, where it belongs.

[itsbaman]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

In my opinion there are several very good PSUs doing yeoman service and serving the nation in ways most private sector would not. Some industries do need one strong PSU to always be there to keep the private sector in line and to serve the unserved - banking, insurance, telecom, railways, healthcare, shipping {maybe}, oil, power and several more. In several PSUs you find individuals who are gems with solid experience and training but stuck in a poor system.

This is indeed true. I am not at all questioning the ability of IAS. but their field is administration. My point is what is the qualification of an IAS to head highly technical and business-oriented PSUs. Gladly, central PSUs are not headed by IAS anymore, but by domain experts or by engineering services. But state PSUs are still being headed by IAS, which must be stopped.

[condor]

A piece posted by businessinsider:

https://www.businessinsider.in/adver...t/86935109.cms

[V.Narayan]

Air India Unions threaten indefinite strike over issue of vacating company accommodation

https://m.timesofindia.com/business/...w/87002445.cms

Legitimate issue from an employees point of view IMHO. Air India has two large employee colonies at Kalina, Mumbai and in Delhi. Tata's purchase does not include the real estate of Air India including the once iconic Air India building at Nariman Point. Buying the real estate would have served little purpose other than to inflate the price significantly. For the sake of the industry and the flying public I hope this gets addresses sensibly. I suppose many more pieces of disgruntled issues will come tumbling out.

[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Air India Unions threaten indefinite strike over issue of vacating company accommodation
---
Legitimate issue from an employees point of view IMHO. Air India has two large employee colonies at Kalina, Mumbai and in Delhi. Tata's purchase does not include the real estate of Air India including the once iconic Air India building at Nariman Point. Buying the real estate would have served little purpose other than to inflate the price significantly. For the sake of the industry and the flying public I hope this gets addresses sensibly. I suppose many more pieces of disgruntled issues will come tumbling out.

Unfortunate decision, it has the ability to "bring down" the airline, before it even takes off with Tata.
Not sure what's transpired in the fine print for the employees' rebadging during the transition to new owner.

It was earlier clarified that Tata will have to retain all employees till atleast 1 year, and then offer VRS to those who need it.

[DigitalOne]

Ajay Singh's short interview (skip to 3.20) on the Air-India bidding.


The way he speaks so highly of the government and the bidding process, makes one wonder if his was a dummy bid, just to show up the numbers .

I am not complaining. AI had to go, and if the govt employed some clever tactics then so be it. In the end, everybody got what they wanted .

[shortbread]

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

It was earlier clarified that Tata will have to retain all employees till atleast 1 year, and then offer VRS to those who need it.

Pretty sure the clause can be broken if the employees disrupt normal functioning.

[BoneCollector]

Air India has stopped credit facility to government employees and the government has directed the various departments to clear the dues of Air India. Further tickets have to be purchased in cash. A welcome move in my opinion. We need to see how much is owed by each concerned department.