Air-India rues financial, image loss due to SARS-phobia
Thursday, 01 May 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The SARS virus has claimed its biggest victim in India in the form of flag carrier Air-India (A-I), with its SARS-phobic pilots' refusal to operate flights leading to considerable loss of face and finances. If the Iraq war hit the airline hard, the killer flu that has claimed around 350 lives worldwide has virtually crippled A-I with several flights cancelled or rescheduled after its pilots refused to fly to SARS-hit regions in east and southeast Asia. The pilots insisted on a certificate that accompanying crew had not flown to the affected regions in the preceding 10 days. When they refused to fly without such certificates, the airline suspended 45 pilots and slapped charges against 12. According to A-I officials, the disruption of flights to the Gulf and Southeast Asia - and the curtailment of more than half of these flights -- is causing an estimated loss of $ 3.15 million a week. Flights to Hong Kong, Singapore, Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam have been temporarily discontinued due to the non-availability of pilots, although the airline is falling back on pilots who have been on management jobs or retired years ago, or those of Indian origin flying with foreign carriers, or just trainees. "There is no denying the financial losses and the loss of image of the airline," A-I spokesperson Jitendra Bhargava told IANS. "We are gradually reinstating the flights as much as we can." The airline had already incurred revenue losses of Rs 100 million due to the flight disruptions in the Iraq war, and an additional expenditure of Rs 250 million. Bhargava asserted this was no time to dwell on financial losses when there was a bigger issue at hand. "Who runs the company? The management or the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG - which is steering the agitation)?" Far from winning any public sympathy, the pilots have come under widespread flak over what many have termed "blackmail" by refusing to operate flights first to Kuwait during the Iraq war, and then to Southeast Asia amid the SARS scare. Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said: "No other airline in the world has faced pilots who have refused to fly like this." Passengers have complained of losses of millions of rupees due to disrupted travel plans and cancelled meetings. Parliamentarians have demanded severe action against them for holding the airline to ransom. The A-I management alleges that the agitation is a ploy of the IPG to extract higher salaries for pilots who already earn up to Rs 500,000 per month. The airline spends billions of rupees in pilots' salaries. Bhargava said the airline hoped to recover quickly with its contingency plans that include adding more destinations per flight and transferring passengers to domestic national carrier Indian Airlines. But the official regretted the damage done to the airline's image by the pilots' agitation. Representatives of the aviation industry said such incidents would drive passengers to other international carriers. Air-India has a share of nearly 20 percent in the country's aviation market. "If things continue like this, Air-India will have to suffer long term fallouts of losing its customers to competition," said K. Joshi, an air travel executive. "It is not desirable for an airline that is trying to recover from losses in the past."
Source: IANS
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