India Can't Seem to Get Off the Ground

Wednesday, 20th June 2012 at 09:11am

Lately, instead of celebrating the moment of its delivery at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, the much talked-about Boeing 787 Dreamliners were nowhere to be found. The planes are still unable to take off from their manufacturer's tarmac lying in wait for their consorts.

But even if the planes are able to come, there would be no ticker tape parade or a marching band to welcome their arrival as Air India and the striking pilots are still in a deadlock.

The unresolved issues regarding pilots' concerns and the state-owned carrier is just the tip of the iceberg of the government's indecisiveness on pressing issues as well as many other important matters that could have been acted on swiftly to avoid economic doldrums. The current state of Air India is a result of the government's policy to keep important industries under its control.

According to a university professor, the country can't seem to find an easy solution for the problems which the country itself created. Like the rest of India's seemingly puzzling problems, the reasons are hard to piece together.

The failure of the new aircraft's delivery to India is a public embarrassment, to say the least. According to a Boeing official, the planes are ready but Air India is not ready to get them. Why? Because the airline and Boeing had disagreements earlier which many thought had been resolved already but until now, the planes are still undelivered.

What complicates matter more is the ongoing strike of Air India's pilots. The problem arose when the original Air India pilots opposed to the airline's decision to allow pre-merger Indian Airlines pilots to operate the new 787 Dreamliners.

The merger of the two state-owned airlines was necessary for both to survive competition globally. Since then, the resulting merger, Air India has been hounded by repeated strikes, poor service and safety issues. Ajit Singh, the Civil Aviation Minister said that the merger was a failure.

The flag carrier was promised by the government for bailout of a whopping $5.4 billion under certain conditions that it should adhere to.

The airline already axed 101 out of the 400 striking pilots for undisclosed reasons. Many profitable international routes had to be canceled which further worsened the situation.

The flag carrier is expected to resume normal operations in the next three or four months and the 787 Dreamliners shall be part of the fleet already. The new aircraft is made of light-weight composite materials, consisting of 80% composite by volume.

By: Pete Lee.