Delay a flight, face pay cut, Air India staff told

NEW DELHI: Exasperated by Air India's unending flight delays and very poor on time performance (OTP), the government has passed an unprecedented order to deduct payment of any employee who reports late and consequentially forces a delayed take off. This order is effective from Sunday (February 1).

Issued by aviation secretary V Somasundaran, the order covers pilots, cabin crew, engineering staff (if they make aircraft available for flight late), ground handlers and even in-flight catering suppliers. This is incidentally Somasundaran's second order within a week. He had earlier directed AI to hire 800 cabin crew to mitigate delays caused by a crippling crew shortage.

"Secretary (aviation) has noted that flight delays are causing monetary losses besides loss of reputation to AI. (He has directed that) accountability for delays has to be fixed... In case of delays on account of late reporting by cabin crew, pilots or delays on account of engineering/ground handling personnel or late catering by caterers, the loss would be recovered from them," AI ED operations, Captain A K Govil, said in a circular issued last Friday.

Govil's circular adds: "Salaries shall be paid only after related deductions have been effected. Strict disciplinary action shall be taken against repeat offenders."

Somasundaran had reviewed AI's very poor on time performance (OTP) last Thursday. The airline has almost consistently been at the bottom of list of punctual airlines issued every month by the directorate general of civil aviation ( DGCA).

Apart from plain indiscipline, AI has been facing a mix of issues that have made its OTP a nightmare for its flyers. These include a spate of engineering issues late last year which saw a notice being issued to head of engineering department and a severe shortage of both pilots and cabin crew.

The secretary, who had earlier directed immediate hiring of cabin crew, has asked the airline to install biometric attendance systems at all flight despatch units "to record attendance of all pilots and cabin crew in real time basis."

When contacted, the airline spokesman said that AI will shortly install biometric attendance systems at all airports beginning with Delhi and Mumbai. All AI offices too shall have this system, with the airline headquarters in Delhi already getting the same.

"The secretary had directed us to hire 800 cabin crew members and we have already got 320 recruits. His orders for improving OTP will be followed stringently," the spokesman said.

However, AI's senior employees are not impressed by these moves. "The government has to understand that the airline must be run by aviation professionals and not IAS officers in the ministry or in AI board. Over 80% of flight delays are caused by a crippling shortage of cabin crew. We are also short of pilots. Should the minister, secretary or chairman's salary be cut if flight delays happen due to their failure to hire people in time? NDA continues to run AI in the same ragtag manner that UPA did. The airline's and its passengers' wait for achche din is an unending one. In fact, no one knows if achche din or antim din will come first!" rued an insider.