Criticism and Controversy
In December 2007, Star Alliance invited Air India in an effort to expand its presence in the Indian subcontinent. However, issues with technology and software upgrades and the aftermath of its merger with Indian Airlines have delayed its entry into the alliance for roughly three and a half years. When the final deadline for joining came in July 2011, Air India's application was suspended, and was told it failed to meet the minimum criteria to join. In response, many of Air India's officials complained to Star Alliance about the suspension of its application, claiming that they already met all of the requirements. Due to high fuel and loan costs, Indian government pumped ₹32 billion into Air India since April 2009 and in March 2012 government bailed out Air India Ltd. with a ₹67.5 billion ($1.4 billion) which the amount almost double of the federal government spent on new hospitals over the three years. As of May 2012 the carrier invited offers from banks to raise up $ 800 million via external commercial borrowing and bridge financing. In 2013, the Indian government planned to delay equity infusion of 30000 crore (US$5.5 billion) that was slated to be infused into the airline slowly over a period of eight years. Plans were changed as the government then planned to spread it over a longer period of time as part of measures to bring down the economy's financial deficit. The original plan was to pump in some 8500 crore (US$1.6 billion) into the airline in 2013, while less than half of that amount was mentioned in the annual budget.
In May 2012, the airline was fined $80,000 by the U.S Transportation Department for failing to post customer service and tarmac delay contingency plans on its website and adequately inform passengers about its optional fees. On 15 May, the Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh stated that the Government was giving Air India one last chance and that it must perform in order to qualify for a bailout. The financial restructuring plans were hit hard when Air India pilots decided to go on a strike on 8 May 2012 in order to protest management decisions to train Air India and former Indian Airlines pilots for the newly inducted Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleets. In spite of the Delhi High Court ruling the strike illegal, the strike continued for 58 days. The already reeling airline lost an additional ₹600 crore because of the pilot strike. In January 2013, A surprise check by a team of senior Air India officials at the Terminal 3 of the Delhi airport where the airline operates, revealed that only 16 of the 25 check-in counters were operational and not even a single floor-walker was present to guide passengers to the aircraft or lounge. The check revealed that the check-in process was taking as long as eight minutes each while it should take less than three minutes.
Read more about this topic: Air India Fleet
Famous quotes containing the words criticism and/or controversy:
“A bad short story or novel or poem leaves one comparatively calm because it does not exist, unless it gets a fake prestige through being mistaken for good work. It is essentially negative, it is something that has not come through. But over bad criticism one has a sense of real calamity.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)