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| Govt appoints SBI caps to prepare growth plan for AI |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jul 22, 2009, 17:05 IST |
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Ahead of a high level committee vetting its restructuring plan, government has appointed SBI Caps to prepare a growth plan for the cash-strapped national carrier Air India.
"We have appointed SBI Caps. Soon, we would be getting feedback on what would be the short, medium and long term restructuring required for Air India," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said while speaking at an event on India Aviation 2010 international exhibition here.
The minister said that the national carrier would soon get an organisational restructuring plan and will go under a major transformation in the near future.
"We will be undergoing a major transformation of the management. We will involve lot of important and eminent people on the board of Air India and have an international advisory board as is a practice across the world," Patel said.
"We will be having a Chief Operations Officer (COO), who will be assisting the Chairman and Managing Director, and will run the airline in totality with a good team and this is what is exactly needed in the years to come," he added.
Stressing on the need for Air India to streamline its operations, he said, "I am sure they would want to cut out loss making routes. The government does not get into the business of regulating routes and this is a deregulated sector and applies to the national carrier also."The minister also said that government will not interfere in day to day functioning of the national carrier but Air India will also have to show enthusiasm for its revival.
Speaking on the issue of the carrier's decision to buy 111 aircrafts, the minister said, "Government did its best to support the initiative from Air India. We didn't decide what they wanted."
Commenting on the plans to impose the Under Development Fees (UDF) and Development Fees (DF) at airports that come under Airports Authority of India (AAI), he said, "To make airports more viable economically, we have to see how to sustain the developmental programme. As UDF or DF has been sanctioned for the airports in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, we would also like to extend that model for the AAI airports also."
"For their developmental programmes in airports in Kolkata, Chennai and other cities where they are putting in large investments proportionate or rather disproportionate to the kind of revenue they would earn in short and medium terms. We definitely look at extending this model to AAI airports also," Patel added.
The minister said that the government was working with AAI to improve flight safety and will fill up the backlog in vacancies for Air Traffic Controller Officers (ATCOs) soon.
"We have taken important steps for increasing safety. The ministry and AAI have agreed to fill up the backlog of ATCOs. Not only we would do aggressive recruiting and training, but we will also go in for recruiting retired ATCOs from both the civilian and defence sides," Patel said. Mentioning that airlines companies world over were migrating from full service to low cost carriers, Patel said that India's operators including the national carrier will also have to look at such a transition.
"We need to understand that growth has to be sustained with economic viability and there is a need for transition from a full service carrier to probably to a lower cost model," he said.
"I don't say that everybody will have to switch over from that model to the other model but a right balance has to be struck and I see these changes coming in next one or two years," he added.
Speaking on the India Aviation show to be held from March 3-7, 2010, Patel said that France would be the partner country at the event.
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