In one of my earlier posts, I spoke about the time when I missed a flight on which my boss was also traveling.  Well, the opposite has also happened.

Mr. Dastur and I were scheduled to visit Tehran and the Iranair flight was scheduled to depart at 00:10hrs.  I got to the airport in good time and at around 23:30, the Duty Manager came to me and enquired if Mr. and Mrs. Dastur were definitely traveling.  I replied in the affirmative and at my request, he called Mr. Dastur at his residence.  They were just about to leave for the airport.  Apparently, he had misread the departure time as 01:10hrs.

I took the flight as we had meetings scheduled in Tehran not to mention a Reception for selected VIPs.  The Dasturs arrived two days later.

KK Menon, the then RM - Middle East and Lalit Khosla, the then Manager - Iran met me on arrival and I apprised them of the change in plans.  It was too late to reschedule the Reception and hence, I stood in the receiving line and greeted each guest with the words “I am standing in for Mr. Dastur, who could not make the trip due to unforeseen circumstances”.  After some time, I decided - what difference does it make,  No one knows me here in Iran and I pretended to be Nari Dastur and shook every guest’s hand on arrival at the Reception.

When I took over as CM - Marketing & Sales, one of the first instructions given to me by Mr. Dastur was that while I had the authority to say “Yes”, I could not say “No” to any request from the field.  Little did I realize how problematic this would become when it soon became apparent that the staff in the  entire European Region had become accustomed to getting everything they asked for as Mr. Dastur could not, and did not, deny them any request.

It took me a long time to convince Mr. Dastur with specific examples that his “lily white” European staff were not always in the right.  However, once I achieved this step, I had no problem as these very staff knew that they could no longer go over my head.

This brings to mind a dinner at Avinash Mahajan’s apartment when one junior Department Head accused Mr. Dastur of his inability to say “no”, particularly to the European stations.  Mr. Dastur took great umbrage at this accusation and the entire evening looked at becoming a disaster until Avi and I separated the two individuals and tempers cooled down.

The many years that I spent working with Mr. Dastur gave me great insight on this “failing” of his.  He was a man of great compassion and unfortunately, many of his staff took advantage of it.  There was the case of one Manager whose daughter had a defect in her heart at birth and he took advantage of this situation to ensure that his overseas posting was not interrupted.  He never came back to India and eventually managed to get transferred to Australia before his retirement.

Mr. Dastur could never see any child suffer and I remember the day when Godfrey Creado came to me in tears with the news that his son had become blind in one eye and was in danger of losing the other one.  I took him to Mr. Dastur who promptly told me to transfer Godfrey to New York for his son’s treatment which I did. 

Even I received special treatment when one day Mr. Dastur came back from a Management Committee meeting to tell me that I would be getting a chauffeur the next morning.  I had been diagnosed by doctors with a problem with my heart and he did not want me to drive my car any more.  I was Deputy C.D. at that time and was not entitled to a driver, but he got Management to make an exception for me.

Mr. Dastur had many great ideas among which was the introduction of Cruises and Air-India embarked upon  a joint venture to offer cruises in the Indian market.  Unfortunately, the timing was just not right and the project was a failure.  Another was the “soiree” that Air-India organized with top music teams who came from all over the world to entertain Indian audiences. We received considerable publicity from this event.

His “failing”, or rather, his inability to say “no” was taken advantage of by TCI who had his ear to their demands and I was approached by many top Indian Agents who felt discriminated against.  Interestingly, it was many years later when we had both left AI and were working with Air Mauritius, that he confessed to me that TCI had taken advantage off his close relations with their senior partners.  

However, he was “delighted” to see that someone had finally taken advantage of TCI.  He was referring to a joint venture between a former AI Commercial Director and TCI to operate Cargo Charters.

Early into his tenure as Commercial Director, Mr. Dastur was approached by Rogers & Company, our GSA in Mauritius to take a financial interest in Air Mauritius.  Dede Maingard, the Chairman of Rogers & Co and Air Mauritius was keen to get the three major airlines (AF, AI and BA) operating to Mauritius to become shareholders in the airline.  

Mr. Dastur convinced the AI board to take an 8% interest in MK and once this came through, Mr. Dastur became a Board member of the airline and took considerable interest in the growth of this airline.  It was many years later that I asked him and he admitted that his initiative was part of his long-term plan.  

His main objective was to be come the CEO of Air-India, but when Mr. Appusamy was appointed M.D., he (Mr. Dastur) realized that he may not be able to achieve this objective as he was nearing his retirement age.  Accordingly, he went to his long-term plan, took early retirement and joined Air Mauritius as its Regional Head for Europe.  More on that later.

However, on one of my visits to Geneva, Mr. Dastur expressed his unhappiness with Mr. Appusamy’s decision to take early retirement.  He told me at great length, the problems that Mr. JRD Tata had to overcome before Government agreed to the appointment of Mr. Appusamy as M.D. Incidentally, the book “AS AIR-INDIANS REMEMBER” reveals, in detail, this entire episode and what took place behind the scenes. 

In one of my earliest Blogs, I have spoken about the early retirements of both Mr. Dastur and Mr. Appusamy and had mentioned the latter’s advice to me to look for another job since, in his words “the culture is changing and you will not fit into it”.  I told Mr. Dastur of this incident and that the change in the atmosphere in Delhi was the main cause behind Mr. Appusamy’s decision to leave.  I don’t know if I was able to get the point across but I left my meeting with Mr. Dastur with the feeling that he was not entirely happy with this decision. 

In any event, Mr. Dastur’s decision to join Air Mauritius was good for him in the long term as he continued working till he was well into his 80s.  As indicate above, more on this later.

In my assignment as CM - Marketing & Sales,  I interacted with a number of Agents and Tour Operators, particularly with Indian Agents and was a regular participant at the annual convention of the Indian Travel Agents (TAAI). I was very fortunate to not only get to know many of them, I established very close friendships with some of them.

Of particular note, were the Asif Dewejee, Netra Rana, Vinoo Ubhaykar, Gautam Khanna, Inder Sharma, Jimmy Guzder, Adi and Nari Katgara and Tej Sahni.  

1. Asif was the Manager of the Bombay (Western India) office of SITA whose owner was Inder Sharma.  Asif was a very colorful character and got “roped in” by a group of ladies who were spouses of men in the travel industry.  These ladies held “kitty parties” every month and they “invited” Asif to become a member.  Each month, one of the ladies would host a lunch at her home.  When Asif’s turn came, the ladies insisted on his hosting the lunch at the Rendezvous, Bombay’s top rated restaurant.  To his credit, Asif gladly paid the bill.
2. Once Asif got to know me, he approached me and said that he wanted to set up his own agency.  He had excellent contacts in the Bohra community and had cornered a substantial segment of this market for SITA.  He also wanted to get involved in the labor market traveling to the Gulf as he had contacts with some of the recruiters.  He asked for my advice and I supported his desire and helped in the initial stages of setting up ABC Travels.
3. Asif and his brother Kasim liked horse racing and they had a box at the Bombay Race Course.  Manju was and still is fond of horse racing and once a year, we accompanied Asif and Kasim to the races.  It was either New Year’s Day or Republic Day and Asif would pick us up in his car and we would spend an enjoyable day at the races.  One day, Asif arrived in a white Mercedes.  It was not new, but in excellent condition.  I complimented Asif on his new acquisition little knowing what was in store for me.
4. February 10 is my birthdate and lo and behold, the bell rang at our front door on that date and Asif’s chauffeur stood here with an envelope in his hand.  The envelope contained a birthday card and the keys to the Mercedes.  I informed the chauffeur that he should take the car back to Mr. Dewjee.  He refused stating that he had been instructed to deliver the car to me and that it was standing below my apartment.  I asked him to wait and called Asif.  Karim answered stating that Asif was in Poona (now Pune).  I explained to Kasim that as an employee of Air-India, a Government owned entity, I could not accept such an expensive gift.  Karim replied that he could not interfere in his brother’s affairs, but reluctantly agreed to get the chauffeur to bring back the car and that he would raise the issue with Asif when he returned.
5. The next day, Asif showed up at our apartment and said that I had “insulted” his friendship by refusing to accept a gift given with affection.  I explained to him that I could lose my job if I accepted such an expensive gift to which he replied “in that case, I will not drive the car again.”  He placed the car in his garage and removed the tires.  It is a matter of record that he never drove the car again and it lay in his garage and rusted till it had to be removed to the junk heap.
6. When I left Air-India and migrated to the USA, Asif was heartbroken.  He refused to accept that he would lose a very dear friend.  I told him that I had no plans to disappear and would visit India regularly.  He made me promise that I would call him first thing on my visits to India.  I kept this promise and we spent one evening on each of my visits to Bombay until he passed away.  He was a very dear friend with a very large heart and his passing away left a deep void in my life.
7. Gautam Khanna, Inder Sharma, Vinoo Ubhaykar, Jimmy Guzder, Adi and Nari Katgara were the stalwarts and the core of the Indian Travel Industry and I learnt a great deal from my association with them.  Tej Sahni invited me to open the new office of Mercury Travels and then decided to branch out on his own like Asif Dewjee and started Vista Travels.  He and I became close friends particularly after I left India and I depended upon him for assistance whenever Manju and I visited India.
8. Netra Rana and Rajni were our first guests when we arrived in the USA.  This reminds me of a visit of Netra when Air-India arranged a limousine for him to come to our house in Scarsdale.  I gave Air-India our address - 26 Leatherstocking Lane - and we waited for his arrival.  The phone rang and it was Netra calling from the house of a diplomat living in Westchester County.  He said that the driver could not find No. #26 Leatherstocking lane.  I told him the it was the last house on the lane and that he could not miss it.  He answered that he was at No. #22 and that was the last house.
9. I was perplexed and asked him to put the diplomat on the phone.  This gentleman confirmed that indeed his house was the last one on Leatherstocking Lane.  The mystery was solved when he added that he lived in the adjoining town of Mamaroneck.  What a coincidence - two adjoining towns with an identical Lane with a name like “Leatherstocking”.  
10. I told Netra to request the driver of his Limo to take Mamaroneck Lane and go west.  This road intersects with our Lane and I would be waiting for him at the crossing.  Guess what, I had another phone call - this one from the White Plains Police Station.  The driver had taken Mamaroneck Road and not Lane and ended up in White Plains.  This time, I told the driver to meet me at Scarsdale Police Station where I finally caught up with Netra Rana.
11. The story does not end here.  A few months late, Netra came again to the USA and was staying in Manhattan.  This time, he was dining with us and took a taxi and told the driver to take him - not to 26 Leatherstocking Lane in Scarsdale, but to Scarsdale Police Station.  I met him there and brought him home.

Those were memorable days and I refer to my associations with the India Travel Agents, with many of whom I have built long lasting friendships.

My tenure as CM - Planning lasted from December 1968 to October 1972 when the Commercial and Planning Departments were reorganized.

At this time, I want to mention a change in Service conditions which came about during this period.  One of the greatest perks of working in Air-India was First Class travel and at that time, such a privilege was given to those staff members who were in the SSM grade and above.  I had reached this grade in 1967 and it coincided with my mother’s visit from Delhi.  The first thing I did was to call Mr. Venkataraman, then Manager Northern India and ensure that she traveled in the First Class from Delhi to Bombay.  She felt very proud that her son had (as she said) “finally made it”.

Unfortunately, this perk was withdrawn for staff based in India sometime in the early 1970s and for the life of me, I cannot remember the exact reason.  I do recall that it had something to do with a tax imposed by the Indian Government for First Class travel. My memory is a bit fuzzy on this issue and I would welcome anyone enlightening me with the exact reason.

The upshot of this new tax was that AI would have to pay this tax whenever any staff member traveled in F/cl whether on duty or on leave.  Management decided that AI would not pay this tax and so all of us in the grade of SSM and above were required to travel in Economy class.  A short time later, Top Management decided that AI would pay the tax whenever members of the Management Committee were to travel.  This would include only the M.D., Asst. M.D and Functional Directors.  

Anyone in the grade of Dy. C.D. or equivalent and below could travel in F/cl if he or she agreed to pay this tax.  The Pilots were up in arms and threatened to go on strike.  At first, Management did not relent but after a number of years, the tax was revoked  and I would once again, request some light being thrown on this issue as I am unable to recall complete details.  Old age is definitely having an effect upon me.

During my days as Commercial Manager – Marketing & Sales, I was flying from London back to Bombay.  Since only members of the Management Committee were entitled to travel First Class, being “middle management”, I was sitting in the rear of the 747 aircraft, but, thanks to the machinations of friends like Godfrey Creado and Norris Baptista, I had the luxury of 3 seats to myself.

After an intermediate stop in Geneva, the In-flight Supervisor informed me that the Chairman had joined the flight and had instructed him NOT to serve lunch to Mr. Sethi; the instruction being delivered most emphatically.  Sure enough, lunch was served to all the passengers around me and I was left alone.

Shortly after all meal trays had been cleared, the curtain separating the First Class Cabin from Economy Class opened and Mr. Tata walked though, came to my row of seats and told me to “move over” which I dutifully did.  He sat next to me and instructed the crew to serve lunch to both of us.  We both ate an Economy Class meal and sat down to a very serious discussion.

Mr. Tata told me that he had heard a rumour that I was contemplating reducing the seat pitch in the Economy Class cabin by increasing the number of rows.  Seat pitch is the distance between the backs of the seats in two consecutive rows.

I advised him that the rumour was indeed true but that no consensus had been reached.  I also mentioned that increasing the number of seats would increase capacity and in turn, reduce the “break-even” load factor.

Mr. Tata told me that yes, economics should always be a determining factor, but in his mind, passenger comfort was a more important issue.  He went on to explain his long held views that his primary objective of “quality of service” should not be compromised.  This should be foremost in our minds as it made Air-India what it was – one of the finest airlines in the world.

Mr. Tata went on to state that if we had unutilized space in the aircraft, he would rather that we put in an additional toilet which would add to the comfort of the passengers.

Guess what - on my return to work, I reminded my colleagues of this primary objective and disbanded the committee which was looking at the issue of additional capacity.

I cannot comment on the quality of service now being offered in Air-India but would only state that during my career with the airline, this objective of Mr. Tata was always foremost in my mind and with great humility and at the same time, pride, I quote below an extract from an email that literally came out of the blue sometime in 2009:

EX-AIRNDIAN THANKS YOU

Dear Mr Sethi

I just wanted to remind myself of the fact how great our Air India was during your Management days.  I am very proud to have worked under you, and you pushed the standard of Inflight Service to a new height,

30 years of happy times and a bonus DY Manager IFSD title, I voluntarily retired and migrated to Western Australia.(1989)

But this is just a gratitude and rememberance of that time.

For me I would like to remember that tall stately quiet person who made changes for the better for Air India.

I wish you well and thank you once again.

Yours sincerely

PJ Mahuvawalla

When Mr. Kooka retired and Mr. Dastur took over as Commercial Director in 1972, the Planning Department once again became an independent entity with Venkat as its head as Dy. Director - Planning & International Relations.  The one major change was that the Tariffs Division came out and continued to be part of my portfolio in my new assignment as Commercial Manager - Marketing & Sales.  I had finally achieved my objective to get back into the Commercial Department with an eye on the job of C.D.

This change in assignment was a major watershed in my career.  Where I had previously traveled all over the world attending IATA and Revenue Pool meetings, I now traveled to study the functioning of our offices and the problems they faced in getting passengers to travel on Air-India.  I visited, for the rest time, outposts such as Fiji, Mauritius and Vancouver in addition to East Africa, The Far East and the Middle East which were areas that I had never traveled to.

It was on one of these trips that I was informed that back home in India, there was a move to appoint a General Sales Agent (GSA) to sell traffic from the Punjab to the U.K.  This move came as a great surprise since we had a GSA in the U.K. who was already selling this traffic and it was one of the reasons for his appointment.  For the uninitiated, most of the Punjab and Haryana originating traffic was, at that point of time, paid for in the U.K.

I was also informed that a decision for this appointment was imminent and that a proposal had been sent by the Manager Northern India to the Deputy Commercial Director and also that it had the full backing of the Regional Director - India.  I sent an urgent telex to the Dy. C.D requesting that no decision be made until the proposal had been studied by me and the Marketing Division.  At the same time, I curtailed my trip and returned to Bombay.

On arrival, I met the Dy. C.D. who told me that he had taken the decision to appoint the GSA.  I questioned the urgency of this decision as the matter fell within my portfolio and any such appointment should have been cleared with me prior to taking a decision.  I advised Mr. Dastur of my unhappiness with this clear breach of etiquette and he agreed to hold a meeting with all present.

The meeting was held in Mr. Dastur’s office and those present were the Dy. CD, the RD-India, Manager - Northern India and myself.  It came out that the Manager - Northern India had been approached by a clerk in the office of the GSA for Air France (AF).  The GSA was actually owned by the clerk’s uncle.  AF had been in the North India market for some time and this clerk who, incidentally, would in later years become the CEO of his own airline, had handled this traffic and as such was (in the opinion of the Manager - Northern India) ideally suited to produce traffic for Air-India.

The Manager - Northern India was so impressed by this clerk that he gave him authority to go ahead with the spade work of opening an office in Delhi.  He then cleared the idea with the RD - India and sent a proposal to the Dy.CD.  I asked why there had been so much haste and why was the proposal not sent to me in the first place?

Imagine my astonishment when the Manager - Northern India confessed that he was aware that I would have turned down the proposal and that he had taken advantage of my absence from Bombay to present the proposal directly to the Dy. CD.  He further confessed that his main objective was to take credit for the revenue produced.  In other words, U.K.’s legitimate revenue credit would have been diverted to Northern India.

Mr. Dastur asked one question and that was directed to the Dy. CD - was the Dy. CD convinced that this appointment would produce substantially additional revenue for Air-India?  There was stunned silence when the Dy. CD stated that he had not looked at this aspect of the proposal.  He had accepted the Manager - Northern India’s word that AI would benefit from this appointment.

I raised two issues.  Firstly, the net effect would be a confrontation between the GSA in the U.K. and the GSA in Northern India as they would be competing for the same market segment.  In my view, the main problem was that the Northern India offices were servicing this traffic (Paid for in the U.K.) and were not getting any credit for such services.  This was, in my opinion, the root of the problem and the reason why the Manager - Northern India was pushing for the appointment.

Secondly, and more importantly, since most of the payments for this traffic were made in the U.K., how was the Northern India GSA going to account for the sales without violating Reserve Bank regulations?  It was quite apparent to me that some of the participants in this meeting were unaware of the manner in which AF and some of the Middle East airlines were handling such payments, which were well known in the market as “Hawala” payments.

If this clerk were to be appointed as the GSA, he would continue the practices of his current employer, leaving Air-India wide open to RBI sanctions.

Mr. Dastur stated that as the latter issue raised by me had so much substance and validity that he had no alternative but to terminate the meeting and that there would be no GSA in Northern India.

Although I had succeeded in my mission, I felt little joy as it brought into the open, discords which had been festering below the surface.  Secondly, the meeting did not end until after 9:00pm and I missed my younger son’s birthday party.  A couple of days later, Mr. Dastur told me in confidence that there was unhappiness among some of my colleagues with my return to the Commercial Department.  However, he assured me that I had his complete backing; an assurance and backing which became evident with my later appointments as Dy. C.D. and C.D.

It was, therefore, a great surprise when a couple of weeks later, the Dy. C.D. brought this young clerk, who had initiated the proposal, to my office.  The young man confessed that he had spent a considerable sum of his own money in the anticipation of opening his own office.  Additionally, he had upset his uncle who was now very unhappy with this move.

He requested my assistance in getting him some work as he was now unemployed.  The Dy. C.D. felt morally committed to help the clerk.  I told him that under the circumstances, I, personally, could not support his desire to work with Air-India but would be willing to get him an introduction to other airlines.  Accordingly, I arranged a meeting with the then Manager of Kuwait Airways who had once indicated to me that they had over 3 tonnes of unutilized cargo space on their daily flights to Kuwait.

I told the young man that there was a considerable movement of vegetables and fruits from India to the Gulf and that without much effort, he could fill three tonnes on Kuwait Airways on a daily basis.  One additional advantage he would have is that there was no discounting on this kind of traffic and once he had established a foothold, he could also service other carriers such as Gulf Air who had more flights than Kuwait Airways.

It is interesting to note that while he accepted this suggestion a little reluctantly, he made such a success of it that in a short while, he had become the GSA for a number of airlines.  He never looked back and in time to come, started his own airline.  I will comment on this airline in a future Blog.

Getting back to the Manager - Northern India’s move to appoint a GSA, it actually came as a surprise because he was Manager - London when the U.K. GSA was appointed and he played quite a large part in the selection of the GSA.  More on this subject at a later time.