Civil aviation ministry has also reached a consensus to give a five-year term to the next CMD of the ailing state-owned airline.
Even though air passenger traffic picked up last month, the overall long-term sentiment for airlines is poor, Air India chief Arvind Jadhav said on Friday.
These views were expressed by Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav at his meetings with leaders of 14 unions, where he is understood to have articulated various scenarios which could arise if costs were not managed well.
On the issue of unionism, he said that problems at hand were not being duly dealt with.
In an open letter to the employees, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav said, "Our issues are complex and can only be resolved through sustained dialogue. Any ad hoc decision would only complicate the matter further. You should understand that at this juncture, demands of one category of employees cannot be addressed in isolation."
Even as the Air India Board meets on Wednesday to discuss productivity-linked incentives (PLI) and other issues, the Joint Action Committee of various trade unions has warned against imposing any decision on the employees unilaterally.
Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav, has finally looked towards his employees for suggestions after trying many consultants in the past for reviving the debt-ridden state-run carrier.
AI's chairman and managing director, Arvind Jadhav, and the ministry's joint secretary and airline board member Prashant Sukul, along with other senior officials, met half the unions today in Delhi. The meeting will continue on Friday and they will also meet the rest of the 14 unions.
In early-December, Air India had appointed global consultancy firm Deloitte to vet the SBI Caps-prepared financial restructuring plan.
The hangar will be capable of accommodating two A320 family aircraft simultaneously or one B777/B747 aircraft. The facility will cost Air India Rs 80 crore (Rs 800 million). Air India already has major engineering units in Mumbai and Delhi for maintenance of aircraft and engines.
"We are meeting the chairman on Thursday to express our view point on his recent directive, barring Air India staff from travelling in business-class/first-class," an Indian Pilots Guild member said. The IGP is opposed to the move on the ground that it would not fetch any financial benefits to the national carrier, the pilot said, adding, "During the meet, IPG would offer alternative strategies which will result in effective means of controlling costs and boosting revenue."
The National Aviation Company Ltd, which runs Air India, today named Gustav Baldauf as its chief operating officer.
The Air India board has decided to reduce by 50 per cent the productivity-linked incentives or flying allowance payable to its employees.
Some of the operational goals the carrier has set for itself are 25 million domestic and 15 million international passengers by 2015.
Twelve bodies of the victims of the Air India plane crash in Mangalore were yet to be identified, said AI Managing Director Arvind Jadhav. "I regret what has happened," he said, adding that AI will provide Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of victims above the age of 12 and Rs 5 lakh for the kin of those below that age.He also announced compensation of Rs two lakh for the injured victims, but added that AI was in consultation with insurance companies.
Air India's top brass will now travel like kings with the austerity drive having been given a quiet burial. The airline issued an order on November 27 saying that the airline's chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav and his spouse can travel first class on its flights, whether on work or on vacation. Not only that, parents and children of the serving chief executive can travel business class during vacation on Air India flights.
The airline had made a three-year turnaround plan in 2009-10.
Arvind Jadhav, a senior IAS officer and the current CMD of Air India, was sent back to parent Karnataka cadre.
The government has not taken any decision on the communications ministry's proposal for appointing the next chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Rohit Nandan, an Indian Administrative Service officer, and currently a joint secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation is set to become the new chairman and managing director of Air India. He will be replacing Arvind Jadhav, who is being shown the door for poor management and the galloping losses the national carrier has suffered.
The CBI has closed a case against former Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav and others over alleged corruption in the appointments of general managers after the central government refused to grant its sanction to prosecute him, officials said. The agency had booked Jadhav, then general manager L P Nakhwa (now retired), and then additional general managers A Kathpalia, Amitabh Singh and Rohit Bhasin after a year-long preliminary enquiry, they said. It was alleged that Jadhav had constituted illegal/irregular promotion panel to recommend suitable candidates for promotion to the post of general manager (operations), they said.
With Arvind Jadhav, principal secretary, in the department of infrastructure development of the Karnataka government, emerging as the frontrunner in the race to replace Raghu Menon as the chairman and managing director of the state-owned National Aviation Company of India Ltd (Nacil), which runs Air India, informed sources said Menon lost the coveted job because of his opposition to the airline's proposed joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).
Kochi will be the new headquarters of Air India Express, while Thiruvananthapuram will be the main engineering centre of the airline.
The statement came a day after the state-run carrier asked all executives in the rank of general managers and above to voluntarily forego salary and productivity-linked incentive payable in the month of July 2009.
The exercise, which will come into effect from July 15, would also see shuffling of eight general manager level and three deputy general manager level officers, airline sources said.
