The Minister for Civil Aviation Shri Ajit Singh, while addressing mediapersons at a press conference here, has said that the Government has accepted the recommendations of Prof. Dholakia Committee Report on Cost Cutting in Air India and sent to Air India for immediate implementation. The Committee has made total 47 recommendations. Air India expects a saving of about 500 crores in next 6 months by implementing some of the recommendations of the Committee. Air India has constituted a Committee comprising of the following to implement the recommendation of Cost Cutting Committee in a time-bound manner :
i) Shri Nasir Ali, Joint Managing Director, AI
ii) Shri Deepak Brara, Commercial Director, AI
iii) Shri S. Venkat, Director Finance
The main recommendation which Air India is going to implement is to evolve a model based on an ideal mix of best practices of LCC model while retaining the core features of full service carrier. The main recommendations are given below:
1. Charging for food in the domestic sector and rationalizing it in the international sector.
2. Unbundling of services to passengers and advertisement space.
3. 0% commission and ticket booking through website.
4. Shift from full MRO to preventive maintenance and power by the hour concept –technical & efficiency audit of engineering.
5. Strict enforcement of simplified excess baggage charges.
6. Dynamic pricing and passenger upgrade.
7. Flights not meeting variable costs need to be restructured or withdrawn to eliminate additional losses and point to point rather than multi-sector operations.
8. Idle aircrafts to be used on most profitable sectors or surrendered; and underutilized assets like luxury lounges, time slots at busy International airports, land, buildings, floors, hangar space and hotels to be leased out or sold.
9. Surplus crew to be relocated as per crew pattern requirements and SOD movement curtailed.
10. As per DPE instructions, no encashment of SL and lapsable PL – also at foreign stations.
11. Temporary posting of employees should stop.
12. Transport and hotels for pilots and crew and their layover pattern.
13. Excessive and unjustified allowances to pilots and crew to be stopped.
14. Extra reimbursements should be merged with allowances within limit of 50% of revised basic as per DPE guidelines; and training should be provided to those with more than 3 years of service left before retirement.
15. Free or subsidized transport facility to be stopped and extra transport allowance over and above the normal transport allowance not to be provided.
16. Canteen services at non-factory areas to be withdrawn and at factory areas to be outsourced with revised rates.
17. Closure of 18 off-line stations and recall of IBOs.
18. 14 Flight Despatchers plus 10 EMS-QMS staff to be hired.
19. Strong accountability at all levels, efficiency audit and private investments in the long run.
Pawan Hans has performed a remarkable turn-around this year compared to its performance during previous fiscal when it had a net loss of Rs. 10.35 crores. Pawan Hans has achieved a net profit of Rs. 7.70 croresfor the financial year 2012-13. PHL has achieved the highest ever operating revenue of Rs. 458.30 crores.Profitfrom its operations of Rs. 39.17 crores is also the highest ever since its formation. Compared to last financial year, PHL have flown around 1000 hours more to earn this all time high revenue. The Company bagged new orders from M/s British Gas Limited, Power Grid Corporation and Governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh,Meghalaya, Mizoram, Assam, Tripura and Sikkim. Various cost reduction measures were also taken including control in over-time, extended duty allowances and special compensation paid earlier leading to a saving of Rs. 3.20crores. A new Eastern Region with headquarter at Guwahati was created to monitor deployments in North-Eastern Region, more efficiently.
The Government has decided to create A.N.S. Corporation from the existing Airports Authority of India for providing A.N.S. services.The Cabinet Note for establishment of C.A.A. has already been circulated and is expected to be cleared by the Cabinet very soon. It is proposed to bring C.A.A. Bill in the coming Monsoon Session of the Parliament.It is proposed to create a separate Aviation Security Force to take care of the airport security. The proposal has been finalized by the Ministry and has been circulated to other Ministries for theircomments.The newly developed Chennai and Kolkata airports are proposed to be managed professionally by engaging private partners through PPP/JV route. The offers in this regard would be invited through an international bid very soon.
