It has been almost two months since my last Post.  Manju and I went on a 10 days cruise along the southern and western Caribbean Sea which took us to Aruba, Cartagena, Panama Canal, Costa Rica and the Cayman Islands.  This was a gift from our children to celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary; a gift that we very proudly accepted.

This was a part of the world that I had never visited during my career and I was particularly fascinated by the way the ships move through the Panama Canal.  The locks work with fresh water and not sea water.  There are no pumps.  The water moves through the locks by gravity.  The fresh water comes from the Gatun Lake which is fed and replenished by rain water and the dangers of Climate Change are very apparent.  Fortunately, the Canal is being widened and the new locks will have water pumped into them.

Shortly after returning from our cruise, we left for our home in New Jersey.  We have been maintaining two homes; one in New Jersey for the summer months and one in Florida for the winter months.  While this can be described as an ideal arrangement, there are many problems in maintaining two homes, particularly as we grow older.  

So, after considerable thought, we have decided to sell the New Jersey home.  We spent over 3 weeks sorting out items which we would keep and accommodate in the Florida home.  The rest had to be - very reluctantly - given away.  It was a most traumatic and emotional period as many items had been collected over a period of 50 years, while we lived in India and later in the USA.

Eventually, we managed to make very difficult decisions and after clearing the house, have given it to a Real Estate Agent to sell.  We returned to Florida last week and have just received some of the items that we had given to a Mover to transport to Florida.  Now, to find room for them is going to be a major task as the Florida home is smaller in square foot area.

While we were away, I was delighted to read about Air-India’s two new flights - the first from Delhi to San Francisco and the second from Ahmedabad to London.  I am not going to comment on the economics of such flights.  What has delighted me is the fact that this will result in greater utilization of the fleet; a subject about which I have written in detail in my emails to both the two previous CMDs.

Air-India is an unprofitable airline due to many reasons, some of which are beyond the control of Management.  But, one major reason was the inadequate utilization of the fleet which resulted in a break-even load factor which was almost impossible to achieve.  For many years, we had aircraft sitting at JFK, CHI and EWR for over 12 hours before turning around for the return flights.  

I was present at the Reception that AI gave to announce the non-stop flight from BOM to JFK and was not only astonished but astounded to hear the then Commercial Director very proudly announce that the schedule of the flight had been designed to cater for the High Yield business traffic which would arrive in the early morning from BOM and return the same evening from JFK.  I could not believe my ears.  Was it true that in all my 24 years with the airline, I had not realized that there was such a large number of business class passengers who wanted to return the same day and that too, after a 16 hour flight coming in and before a 14 hour flight going back!!!!

Who were these elusive passengers and hence, I was interested in the actual study that must have been done to come to this conclusion.  I, therefore, asked the then CD if he could elaborate on this decision.  I am sorry to state that this arrogant individual confessed that no such study had been done, but that it was his “hunch” that this was the what the Indian businessman wanted.

I bluntly asked him if this charade was the result of the airline having more aircraft than it needed and Management didn’t know what to do with these aircraft.  He walked away in a huff.

That was many years ago and times have not changed.  AI still has more aircraft than it needs and not only are some standing on ground; some are being cannibalized and some are operating on routes for which they were not designed.

Nonetheless, I am personally very happy with the introduction of the SFO flight.  Way back in 1980, I had sent a detailed Note on trans-Pacific operations to the then CMD, but he took no action.  In preparation of this operation, I had held a number of meetings with the Japanese so that we could get 5th freedom rights. 

However, nothing came of it until I met Mr. Yogi Deveshwar at an IATA AGM in the early 1990s and the subject came up in our discussions.  He showed considerable interest and I requested him to ask his staff to dig up my 1980 Note upon his return to Bombay.  Unfortunately, he did not complete his term and the subject “died” once again.

The current CMD has made an excellent beginning with improving aircraft utilization and I hope he keeps this up.  With the concurrent drop in fuel prices, we may hope to see a much improved financial picture.  However, these steps, by themselves, will not solve Air-India’s long term problems.

In addition to the question of over-staffing is the major issue of Bilateral Traffic rights.  The blatant grant of unlimited flights particularly to the Gulf carriers such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar will be a big fat thorn in Air-India’s long term future.

This leakage of Air-India’s own 3rd & 4th freedom traffic continues with the recent grant of additional seats to Oman Air, whose CEO made it openly known that the additional capacity would enable the airline to “offer better connections to Europe”.  Oman Air did not need additional capacity to carry India-Muscat passengers.  They wanted and got the right to plunder AI’s rightful traffic.  AND THE INDIAN CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITIES ACTED COMPLICITY IN THIS VENTURE.