AI chief Bansal calls meeting to review latest initiatives

Air India chief Rajiv Bansal has called a meeting of senior airline officials tomorrow to review various initiatives announced by him in the last one month for bringing improvements in specific areas such as OTP, cabin cleanliness and availability of aircraft.
In an e-mail to select directors and executive directors ahead of the meeting, Bansal asked them to prepare an action plan with timeline for the implementation.
"I have identified a set of priority areas that we need to work on together....The objective is to identify measures which can be implemented over the next three months and execute these," the Air India Chairman and Managing Director said in the e-mail dated October 10.

After taking over as Air India interim CMD in August, Bansal had said he plans to work on profitability with a missionary zeal, improve the 'on time performance' (OTP) and ensure customer satisfaction.
The priority areas identified for improvement included OTP, cabin ambiance, corporate accounts, customer feedback, crew management system, aircraft availability and fuel optimisation, as per the CMD's communication.
"We will have a review meeting on Friday to discuss these initiatives. I would request that an action plan along with timelines is prepared to implement the same," Bansal said in the mail.

The national carrier has been receiving flak from various quarters over issues such as flight delays. It is also saddled with a massive debt of over Rs 50,000 crore.

To revive Air India, the government has decided to go for strategic disinvestment.
Bansal has also asked the top officials to seek the help of a transformation professional from McKinsey.
Air India had appointed McKinsey as consultant to advise the airline on firming up its long term strategic business plan.
"McKinsey completed its mandate and submitted a report in June," a source said. A query sent to Bansal and airline spokesperson seeking to know if Air India had renewed the contract of the consultancy remained unanswered.