New Delhi: Spineless management teams subservient to self-serving political masters coupled with irresponsible employee behaviour have killed Air India. In what is positioned as a tell-all book by an insider, AI's ex-executive director Jitendra Bhargava is sharp on former CMD V Thulasidas — "his master's voice" — and ex-civil aviation minister Praful Patel, who have been blamed for "the descent of Air India" , which is also the book's name.
Training his guns on the government, Bhargava says, "AI had long nurtured a grouse against the government for not supporting its aircraft acquisition plans.... the board finally approved an order for 28 aircraft — 10 longrange and 18 short range — in November 2003.... Patel, in a meeting held in the civil aviation ministry on August 2, 2004, asked both AI and Indian Airlines to revisit their fleet acquisition plans."
IA rejected the suggestion and stuck to its original demand for 43 aircraft. "... Praful Patel, V Thulasidas, a few (others) lent support to increase (AI's) long-haul aircraft from 10 to a staggering 50," the book says, adding, "The price that AI would have to pay was an astronomical Rs 40,000 crore.... It was clear that little thought was being given to the airline's ability to service the debt that was to be incurred for the new purchases."
Read news in full 12/10/13 Saurabh Sinha/Economic Times
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