Think savings, when you are flying low on money. Now, when the airline is the Maharaja himself, you think of divesting more than just stake. Air India employees have been brainstorming to save their employer by thinking of some desperate measures tailored to the desperate times the Maharaja is living in. Or rather, flying in.
A few employee suggestions to cut operational costs coming from the debt-ridden airline's employees is likely to have left airline officials impressed and confused at the same time as to how they could be implemented with a modicum of credibility. Suggestions accessed by The Times of India daily suggest doing away with salads and removing inflight reading material to boot.
The second idea seems neat as carrying fewer inflight magazines for passengers to read does reduce fuel consumption, and consequently, the costs of operating each flight.
The Times of India reported that a senior Air India official had in a recent mail informed top management that a cabin crew member had told him that only 20 percent of economy passengers eat salad on international flights and so it made sense to do away with the item. Fewer magazines to read was also suggested.
"It may seem trivial but it is part of the resolve to reduce weight and remember the well-known saying that drops make an ocean," the mail read.
"He also felt that we must carry only around 25 copies of Shubh Yatra (AI's inflight magazine) in a flight which can be kept in the magazine racks rather than on every seat to reduce weight," the report said, citing the official's internal communication.
"We have a few months to prove ourselves. Friends, Let us all resolve to increase revenues and decrease costs in a war like manner," The Times of India reported, quoting from the senior official's email.
The suggestions to the Air India management pointed out how cost conscious (budget airlines) are, the daily said. "IndiGo first removed curtain in front of the cockpit door to reduce weight. When cockpit door is open a crew stands there. He says after a few weeks they even removed the curtain hooks as they felt that also adds to the weight. It may seem trivial but it is part of the resolve to reduce weight and remember the well known saying that drops make an ocean," the senior official's communication says.
The efficacy of these suggestions coming after the government is looking for suitable buyers for the airline, or whether they come too late is a question to be considered. For, the Maharaja has been struggling to operate effectively after being saddled with debt of over Rs 54,000 crore.
The newspaper report said that Air India employees could well have been inspired by the folklore of aviation industry, according to which a leading American carrier saved almost $1 lakh annually by removing an olive from each meal in the 1980s.
As for Air India, the airline has become a bottomless pit with thousands of crores of taxpayers' money going into keeping the highly unionised airline afloat in the competitive sector, The Times of India noted.
The newspaper said that in recent weeks there have been indications from the government that a decision on Air India is imminent. It said that Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has confessed that it would be difficult to find a 'bakra' who could take over Air India.
The last time a debt-ridden carrier folded up was in 2012 — Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines shut down after amassing huge debt.
