Air India curtails freebies as cost-cutting regime comes into effect

Air India staff will hereafter not be allowed go on foreign tours unless it is "absolutely essential" and that too only with the permission of its Chairman and Managing Director.         

"Foreign tours should be undertaken only for absolutely essential purposes. All foreign tours henceforth should be scrutinised at the functional director level and recommended to the Chairman only in respect of critical cases," an Air India circular signed by its Chairman and Managing Director, Raghu Menon, said.        

With its losses mounting to Rs 2,100-crore and with air turbine fuel prices on the rise, the national air-carrier has been forced to resort to cost-cutting measures to boost its sagging bottomline.        

Air India is expected to implement a rigorous cost-cutting regime based on the recommendations of its Finance Department which was presented before its Board a couple of months ago.        

The circular said that foreign travel should be restricted to the bare minimum number of persons who are operationally required to travel and that "accomodation at overseas stations should as far as possible be at crew hotels where facility of lower room-charges is available."        

Airline staff has also been instructed to travel only by economy class which offer lower fares.