In Search Of A Right Solution

Though discipline and management autonomy are essential to improve service and punctuality, without the required increase in the capital it will be difficult for any organisation to survive.

Leasing out its unutilised routes in a revenue sharing arrangement will not solve the problems of the national carrier. When the traffic into and out of India has registered an increase of about 15 per cent, why has AI's westbound traffic fallen from 33 per cent to 20 per cent in last four years? When Russi Mody was appointed as the chairman of AI and IA, everybody thought that he could transform these airlines into profit making organisations. Unfortunately, his wings were clipped and he remained only as a part-time chairman.

 

In these circumstances, private air taxi operators should be allowed to operate in the international sectors as well (atleast in the unutilised sectors). It is not reasonable for the government or Air India to ask these air taxi operators to pay a major portion of their revenue as lease rent for routes. If the government decides to lease out the unutilised routes, as suggested by the writer, no one would invest on aircrafts but would focus solely on acquiring routes. This will not be a healthy competition for the airline industry.