AI-Indian Airlines 'emotional merger' yet to happen: Raju

-While describing Air India as a "lovely airline" that has served the Indian people well, the minister said there are "legacy issues" and that taxpayers' money cannot be put in for eternity to keep it afloat.

In efforts to revive the loss-making Air India, the Cabinet, in June, had given its in-principle nod for strategic divestment of the airline and its five subsidiaries. A group of ministers is working on the modalities for the process.

Raju said the merging of Indian Airlines with Air India has taken place, "but emotional merger... that is still not happening. So, there are problems".

"Implementing Dharmadhikari (committee recommendations) that is one angle... Still, within the organisation itself there are certain problems," the minister said in an interview.

In 2012, five years after the merger of the two airlines into one, the Dharmadhikari committee had submitted its report on Air India HR issues to the government.

The merger, which happened in 2007, is seen as a major factor for the current state of affairs at Air India -- which for the first time in a decade eked out an operational profit of Rs 105 crore in 2015-16.

"Its (Air India's) finances are bad, but I, for one, would not like it to go the Kingfisher way because that doesn't help anybody. It crashes and no activity, no employment and no contribution to the economy. That is not what I like. I want it to survive and be a vibrant airline," he stressed. On whether there would be job losses on account of divestment, the minister said, "I think employees will still continue because in Air India, employees are basically technical (such as) pilots, cabin crew and engineers."

"I don't think there will be much of a problem there.

Employees would also like the organisation to survive," he added.

Asked about the divestment plans of Air India, Raju said an alternative mechanism is "applying its mind and let them come out with the things".

On June 28, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had given its in-principle nod for strategic disinvestment of Air India and five of its subsidiaries.

New Delhi: Air India will not hesitate to take action against vendors who default on their services, the airline's chief Rajiv Bansal said as he works on improving the overall efficiency of the airline.

Taking a serious note of the recent incident where a rodent was spotted on a Delhi-San Francisco flight, Bansal has ordered penalty to be imposed on the caterer concerned after seriously looking into the matter.

"We will take action against anybody who defaults on our SLAs (Service Level Agreements). We will not hesitate to take action if there is a violation," Bansal said in an interview.

Last week, a rodent was spotted on the flight that was set for take-off for San Francisco, following which the service was delayed by more than nine hours. The aircraft was fumigated before the take-off.

About the incident, Bansal said he looked at the matter very seriously with the employees.

"I have told them to do an analysis of where are the possibilities where such a rodent could have come into the aircraft. It could be from the door, belly, flight catering...

We did immediate check of catering vans and we found some short-comings. I have ordered a penalty to be imposed on the caterer," he said.

Earlier also, there have been instances of flights getting delayed due to rodent menace and other issues.

Bansal, a senior IAS officer, took charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India on August 24.

"We will plan to work on profitability with a missionary zeal, improve our on-time performance and ensure customer satisfaction," he had said soon after taking over the reins of the airline.