Will ‘Maharaja’ rule Indian skies again?
With an objective of showcasing employee-friendly initiatives, Ministry of Civil Aviation has announced the implementation of Justice ‘Dharmadhkari’ Committee Report for the revival of Air India (AI).
The
deadlock is still on owing to the AI pilots’ strike, resulting in an adverse impact especially in the international services of the airline. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), however, asserted that about 75 per cent international flights were operational and the AI management is planning to hire pilots to make all international flights of the Airline operational. Till
Unveiling the salient features of the report, Ajit Singh, Civil Aviation Minister, maintained that the report was the key to make AI work on its growth trajectory. “AI is in a serious crisis. Human resources development is an effective way to bring the national carrier into business. The success of recently announced turn- around of the Airline is heavily dependent on the efficiency of the airlines’ management and other employees,” said the Minister.
The Justice Dharmadhikari Committee Report also suggested bringing in rationality pertaining to pay scale and promotion, with an objective to resolve the controversy and in-fight between the employees of erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India. It is worth mentioning that the conflict of interest was one of the major reasons behind the AI pilots’ strike. Nevertheless, there are some anomalies in this report, which can further create new controversies. “We have decided to form an ‘Implementation Committee’ to discuss the recommendations pertaining to employees’ benefits in the combined entity (AI) after the merger,” Singh stated. He also maintained that soon AI would announce a new business plan to make the airline strong and profitable by 2014.