Flying into turbulence

Flying an aircraft out of turbulence requires skill and, probably, years of experience in the cockpit. The opposite, of course, is not as difficult, and all it takes is a few politicians/bureaucrats, without much experience.

How else do you explain what is happening to the aircraft acquisition plans of both the public sector airlines, Indian Airlines and Air-India?

At a time when the skies were being opened up by the NDA regime and the process was being accelerated by the UPA, and when privately-owned carriers like Jet and Sahara were being allowed to fly abroad, till then the exclusive privilege of the state-owned airlines, we were told aircraft purchases for the public sector carriers would be expedited.

To put this in perspective, Indian Airlines’ aircraft acquisition plans have been delayed by over 16 years already while those for Air-India are over two decades old.

Indeed, Indian Airlines’ purchase of 43 Airbus aircraft was cleared by the Public Investment Board (PIB), and a Cabinet note circulated on a government guarantee to allow Indian Airlines to raise the necessary funds, when the finance ministry asked the civil aviation ministry to certify that the Airbus offer was the best given to any other airline—since it was always evident that no aircraft manufacturer would make public such details without jeopardising sales to other airlines, this effectively scuttled the deal.

Even more interesting, it was the expenditure secretary who chaired the PIB which originally cleared the IA deal. The final seal on the aircraft acquisition plans of both the airlines, of course, has now come in the form of Aviation Minister Praful Patel saying that he’s rethinking the entire acquisition plans, ostensibly to lower costs.

The ministry has even asked the Prime Minister to set up a group of ministers (GoM) to evaluate the process for both airlines—once accepted, the group will then have to start the entire process ab initio, right from the need for new aircraft (especially now that the “open skies” policy means there is no shortage of aircraft seats in the country) to why certain types of planes were selected.

Anyone familiar with the workings of the government will know this process could take anywhere between a few months and a year, after which a whole new set of objections can be raised during the period in which the Cabinet ratifies the GoM’s decision.

During this period, needless to say, the market shares of both the state carriers will fall further. While Air-India has had to cancel as many as 35 flights in just the last month due to shortage of aircraft (including six on the low-cost carrier A-I Express), Indian Airlines has also seen its market share plummet as (apart from the issues about the quality of services) rival Jet has more operational aircraft than it does.

It doesn’t help that Indian Airlines also has to fly more aircraft on non-lucrative routes such as in the north east thanks to political pressures.

While there is clearly a genuine case for getting the government out of the airline business, since the UPA has consciously decided it will not privatise the two carriers, the only way forward is to get them more aircraft to allow them to fly more.

Not privatising the carriers but starving them of aircraft at the same time is completely unjustifiable since it erodes whatever value the airlines still command.