In my previous Blog, I had mentioned that according to the statement made by the Minister of Civil Aviation, Air-India’s aircraft utilization and Load Factors had gone up in the year 2105/06 and that total revenue was also up by 3.4%.

However, a recent article in Livemint (May 19, 2016) gives a much clearer picture - passenger revenue actually DECLINED marginally; a fact that the Hon. Minister failed to inform the general public.

And now the CMD, in one of his Blogposts has blamed the national air carrier’s woes on “the merger with Indian Airlines that never took off as expected and previous bosses who pinned the responsibility on employees for its dismal state of affairs”.  He goes on to say “It makes me sad when the common employee is often blamed for the ills of the organization, in this case too, whereas the real reason for the debacle lies elsewhere, in my opinion on the head honcho”.

Interestingly, the CMD fell short of actually saying that the merger was a wrong decision.  Was he actually agreeing with the decision and, if he was, then, in my opinion, he is playing a “political game” as his own future depends on his political bosses.

The CMD’s statement indicates that in his opinion the actual implementation was incorrectly carried out by the “head honcho”.  He does not say who this “head honcho” is, but to my simple mind, he can only be referring to either one or both the CMDs who held this post prior to Mr. Lohani taking charge.

I don’t hold any brief for either Mr. Jadhav or Mr. Nandan, but in their defence, I must emphasize that they were handed an almost impossible task of trying to merge two diametrically opposite cultures.  I would, at the same time, blame the powers that be for selecting two Babus who did not have the expertise or background to be handed this most unenviable task.  In addition, they were given no free hand to deal with the unions who placed innumerable road blocks.

Ideally, what the Government should have done would have been to invite outside Consultants who had the requisite knowledge and experience in merging these two entities.  Instead, they gave the job to a political hack whose answer to all issues was to ask “how high” when his master told him to jump.  These two Babus who masqueraded as Chief Executives knew that their Annual Appraisals were signed by their immediate bosses and that they had no alternative but to toe the line.

I cannot speak of the climate within Indian Airlines, but I am aware as was everyone who had worked in Air-India  that the morale had dropped immensely.  It worsened even more when the merger was announced.  It is no secret that the IA senior staff very gleefully taunted their AI counterparts with the statement - TUMHARA LOGO BUT HAMARE LOG.

To accomplish a merger with this kind of atmosphere was a herculean task and the two previous CMDs were neither equipped with the expertise nor did they have carte blanche authority to make waves.  In other words, they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

At the same time, I must express my disappointment with the current CMD to place the blame on the shoulders of his predecessors.  When he accepted this position, he knew very well the mess that he inherited.  To openly criticize his predecessors is not a very gentlemanly thing to do.

It is now 5 months since Air-India started its San Francisco operations and I was very pleased to learn that the airline is experiencing excellent load factors and in fact, looking forward to increasing the frequency.  I had recommended the operation of flights to the West Coast way back in 1980 and once again in my talks with the then CMD, Mr. Y.C. Deveshwar in Montreal in 1991.

However, for some reason to which I am not privy, the airline plans to change the configuration of the aircraft by increasing the number of Economy class seats and eliminating the First Class and reducing the Business Class seats.  I would have thought that with the large number of high yield passengers traveling between the Silicon Valley and India, there would be greater emphasis on providing adequate capacity for the hi-yield category of traffic.  I wonder what are the true economics of this flight.

At the same time, I am concerned to learn that apart from an Airport Manager, Air-India has no support staff at SFO.  There is no Station Head and no sales staff to service travel agents.  At a recent Trade Show, the Air-India booth was unmanned.  

Apparently, there is a dispute between AI and the Union regarding hiring of local staff, but I cannot understand why an on-line station has no India based Manager.  AI has signed a long term lease on a brand new office which lies empty.

I also learn that when the flight was inaugurated, there were two senior India Based Officers  who stayed in hotel rooms until the powers that be in Delhi learnt about the cost of these hotel rooms and the daily outstation allowance being paid.  Result - the staff were recalled and never replaced.

A check at AI’s North American headquarters in New York also reveals that there is no Head of the Sales Department; a situation that has existed for quite some time.  I am informed that from time to time, someone assumes the mantle for a couple of days a week but here does not appear to be any continuity in this post.

So, what goes on with this “new” Air-India?  Someone well connected tells me that it would “appear” that all the airline needs to do is to try and fill its seats by lowering its fares and yields.  If this experiment succeeds and, apparently, it is doing so, why do we need sales staff or an India based Manager - why indeed?

A recent written reply given by the Minister of State for Civil Aviation “very gleefully” informed the Lok Sabha that Air-India had made an operating profit of the very large sum of Rs. 8 crores.  The Net Loss dropped from Rs. 5,859 crores in 2014/15 to Rs. 2,636 crores in 2015/16.  

If one looks deeper into this magnificent sum of Rs. 8 crores, the change in the airline’s profitability is due almost entirely to the drop in jet fuel prices, which have dropped from $1.84 per gallon in May 2015 to $0.93 in Jan 2016 and $1.07 in Mar 2016.  What is going to happen to this meagre operating profit when fuel prices go back up.  The price of Crude Oil has already shown a 50% increase from its low point this year.

I am also informed that while utilization has gone up and load factors have increased, the total revenue shows an increase of only 3.4%.  

Is it because the new marketing policy dictates that all that is needed to fill the aircrafts is to drop prices and reduce staff costs?

But then, the entire philosophy and culture has taken a major change.  Maybe, the SFO experiment is what the future holds for AI - elimination of a Manager and sales staff at all stations.  Why does the airline need such “superfluous” staff when the flight fills by itself?  Why, indeed?

A recent e-mail from a person, whom I had never met, thanked me for my Blogs from which he had learnt about his grandfather, Lal Sikka.   This brought back memories of an incident way back when Air Marshal Chaturvedi was our M.D.  Whenever we had a meeting in his office, each attendee was served tea on a small tray.  The A.M., however, had his tea served in the traditional style - on a Tea Trolley with the teapot covered by a tea cosy and milk and sugar pots alongside.  In addition, there were always two cups since his second cup of tea was never served in the first cup that he had used.

That day’s meeting was to finalize the appointment of an Adviser to the Chairman of Air Mauritius and the two candidates - myself and our Manager - East Africa were present in the M.D.’s office along with senior Department Heads.  The attendees were sitting in a semi circle around the M.D.’s desk with the Manager - East Africa at the right of the M.D.

Tea was served on small trays except for the ever present Trolley for the M.D. but no one noticed that there was no tray for the Manager - East Africa.  For some unexplained reason, there was one tray short.  Not to be left out, he proceeded to pour himself a cup using the M.D.’s teapot and the 2nd cup.

When the M.D. finished his cup of tea, he turned towards the Trolley to pour himself a 2nd cup and realized that there was no 2nd cup.  He rang for his peon and asked him - where is my 2nd cup to which the nonplussed gentleman replied - on the Trolley.  Everyone’s head turned towards the culprit - our Manager - East Africa, who didn’t bat an eyelid and calmly went on drinking his tea.

Mr. Kooka then stated something like “Lal, didn’t you get a tray?” and the reply was - “what tray?  I thought the 2nd cup on the Trolley was for me”.  Fortunately, everyone broke into laughter and the M.D. had to smile and wait for a fresh pot and cup to be brought for his regular afternoon tea.

Guess who ended up in Mauritius - Lal Sikka!!  But it was not because he “stole” the M.D.”s tea.  If I had been chosen, Lal would have been the ideal candidate to take my place as C.M. - Planning but, as expressed earlier, he didn’t want to work in India.  As such, he was the obvious choice. 

Air-India had, for many years, been a major supporter of Indian sport and when I took over as Commercial Director, one of my tasks was the promotion of sports and I chose tennis.  My first choice would have been golf, but Mr. Kooka had already taken interest in this sport.  Some years earlier, Vikramjeet Singh who was India’s no. 1 golfer was already on our payroll.

I had been elected a Vice President of the Maharashtra State LawnTennis Association (MSLTA) and had met and seen the Amritraj brothers play.  I asked them how Air-India could help in promoting this sport and they suggested that we provide free travel so that they could play at various centers were the airline had services.  

I agreed and we signed a Transportation Service Contract (TSC) with Vijay and Anand Amritraj to provide free tickets against publicity that they would provide to us.  I remember attending some of the Indian Tennis Open matches where Vijay won the Finals and I invited him to come to my office the next day so that I could introduce him to Mr. Unni, Mr. Appusamy and Mr. Dastur.

Vijay and Anand both came and in addition to the trophy, they brought along the extra large towels that we had produced showing the Maharajah in his tennis attire.  I took them to the 22nd floor and all along the way, many of our staff lined the passage and clapped their hands as we passed.  It was quite a moment.

Shortly thereafter, Mr. Gole, our Personnel Director asked me if we could extend support also to another tennis player - Shashi Menon and I agreed.  However, in Shashi’s case, we hired him as a part time staff and allowed him freedom to complete his studies and at the same time play in various International events, such as Wimbledon, The French Open and the U.S. Open.

All three were regular visitors to our home and guess what, even after I had left the airline, they came to visit us in Scarsdale in the USA - more on this later.  Before I speak of these visits, let me digress and speak about another great tennis player, Ramesh Krishnan.

Ramesh’s father - Ramanathan Krishnan  phoned me and requested an appointment to which I agreed.  He wanted me to also sign a TSC with his son and I said that we would be very happy to do so and told him that the value of the TSC would be half that of the TSC with the Amritraj brothers since, in this case, there would be one player and not two.  He did not agree and stated that it would have to be the same.  I asked him to explain his reasoning and his answer was “his mother has to travel and cook for him as he is a vegetarian”.

I regretted my inability and it was with great reluctance that he accepted my offer.

I never got to meet Ramesh Krishnan which was my loss, but saw quite a bit of the other three tennis players who often held clinics for budding tennis players at the MSLTA courts in Bombay.  After the official clinic ended, Vijay and Shashi would informally coach our sons who were great admirers of these fine sportsmen.

One of my duty trips took me to London and this trip coincided with the British Open at Wimbledon.  I “bumped” into Vijay and Anand in a bar in Mayfair and invited them for dinner.  They accepted but wanted to eat Indian food with Vijay saying that during his matches, he liked to eat only Tandoori chicken and so we ended up at Gaylords.

I lost contact with these players after I left Air-India but fate intervened and in 1981 when we had just moved to the USA and were “setting up” home in Scarsdale, we met up again.  I say “setting up” and by this I mean that we had ordered our new furniture which would take about 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.  In the meantime, we are living on make shift stools, cushions and tables made of boxes.  We did, however, have proper beds.

The phone rang one day and the caller was Shashi Menon who said that he had heard that I had left AI and was now working with Kuwait Airways  and based in New York.  He enquired if he could impose upon our hospitality as he intended to play at the U.S. Open staring the next week.  

He needed a place to stay while he played. I told him that he was most welcome to come stay with us, but he would have to rough it out as we were not fully settled and he flew over from Los Angeles a couple of days later.  The boys were thrilled as they had got to know Shashi during our Bombay days.

Shashi came and played at the Open during the first week after which he had to leave since he did not go beyond the 2nd round of the Singles.  But during this first week, we got free tickets to all the matches plus had free parking at reserved lots as we drove Shashi to his matches.

Before the 1st week of the Open come to a close, we bumped into Vijay and Anand Amritraj who were also participating in the tournament.  We exchanged hugs and handshakes and then Vijay asked if he could offer us tickets for the 2nd week, which we accepted by great delight.  Manju asked if they would like to come and have dinner at our house which they, in turn, accepted.  A date was agreed upon and I gave them our address.

Imagine our surprise when a stretched limousine arrived at our house a few days later and out came not only Vijay and Anand, but also their parents, Anand’s wife and their younger brother Ashok - 6 in all.

Manju hastily cooked additional food while we also sat on foot stools and cardboard boxes.  Drinks were served as my bar was fully stocked and we soon got to rekindle our association with these great athletes.  We had met their parents before as they had been our dinner guests at our apartment in Bombay. 

Not only do we have fond memories of this evening, but somewhere in one of my albums, we have photographs of this event.  I must mention here that Vijay kept in touch with us whenever he was playing in subsequent U.S. Opens.  Our older son, Akhil remembers meeting Vijay many years later when Manju and I had stopped going to the tournaments.  He recognized Akhil and asked about us.

Shashi Menon is living on the west coast and is in constant touch with the boys and occasionally calls me..  His Christmas cards always come in time.

Before I left Air-India, I was involved in an another sport at the behest of Jimmy Martin, our P.R. Manager.  It was car racing and AI was one of the main sponsors of the first Himalayan Rally.  I spoke with Mr. Appusamy (also before he took early retirement) and he agreed that we could earmark a substantial sum towards the sponsorship.  

It so happened that the actual event only took place just after I had stopped working for AI, but before I left for Kuwait.  The rally was flagged of by Mr. Raghu Raj, but I was present and by his side when this event took place.

About a couple of years before I left the airline, I received a call from a senior officer in the External Affairs Ministry in Delhi asking for a favor.  The Shah of Iran was due to visit India and they wanted to ensure that his suite was stocked with a particular wine which he was fond of drinking.  Those were the days when Morarji Desai was the Prime Minister.  He was a strong protagonist of prohibition and the External Affairs Ministry could not be seen as a provider of liquor.

I called our then Manager in Paris and he sent a case of this particular wine and also two cases of bottled Evian water.  I do not wish to elaborate how we accounted for these purchases, but in those days, we did manage to cover such expenses.  The wines were in transit to Bombay when we were advised that the Shah’s trip had been cancelled. So the wine packed in a large suitcase and the boxes of Evian were stocked in one corner of the office of Anil Kadam, my Executive Assistant. 

It was only when I had put in my papers that Anil brought to my attention that we had these items which had been sitting in his office for about 2 years.  The Evian water was easy to dispose off - a few of the staff on the 17th floor drank them.

However, the wine was a different issue altogether.  I offered it to Malcolm Baretto who took over as Commercial Director and he gladly took a few bottles.  A friend of mine asked if he could get the balance with the understanding that when I got to New York, I should buy an identical quantity and he would reimburse me.  I did reach New York about 9 months later, made the purchase and served the wine to some of our friends.