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not meeting variable costs need to be restructured or withdrawn to eliminate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 crores for the financial year 2012-13. PHL
has achieved the highest ever operating revenue of Rs.
458.30 crores.Profit from 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. 3.20 crores. 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
their comments.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.
