The four-member committee constituted to look into the salary disparity between employees from the erstwhile Air India and India Airlines will give its report by September.
The civil aviation ministry had formed the panel of independent experts to look into the matter, as it continued to be a thorny issue three years after the airlines were merged. The committee is headed by retired judge D N Dharmadhikari, R Dholakia, professor at IIM Ahmedabad and Rajeshwar Dayal, a retired Department of Public Enterprises official, as members along with member secretary Syed Nasir Ali, a director in the ministry.
“The committee has started work and will give its recommendations in five months,” said a senior ministry official. He said it would meet all staff in the airline, even the two that were de-registered after they went on a flash strike.
Air India had 14 unions. Two of them — Air Corporation Employees Union and Air India Aircraft Engineers’ Association — were de-registered after they went on a flash strike after an Air India Express flight crashed in Mangalore last year.
“The purpose of the committee is to find a solution to the problem and it will meet anyone with representation of, at least, 50 members, including the de-recognised unions,” said the official.
Air India, which recently lost to IndiGo to become the fourth largest carrier in the country, has launched competitive fares for the peak summer season to regain its third position.
However, the airline has also seen improvement in its occupancy. During April 2010 to February 2011, the government carrier has seen an improvement in its passenger load factor from 64.9 per cent to 66.4 per cent. While, the occupancy in the international sector has seen an increase from 63.5 per cent to 65 per cent, the domestic sector has registered an increase from 70.2 to 71.4 per cent.
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Air India has also increased the number of flights in the domestic as well as international sector. In the international sector, the airline has seen flights increasing to sectors like Seoul, London, Paris and Abu Dhabi.
The airline has also increased frequencies in various domestic sectors such as Delhi-Mumbai, Kolkata and various prime routes. Various loss-making routes like Hyderabad to Kolkata, Sarjah and others in south India have been cancelled.
Air India has accumulated losses of Rs 15,000 crore. It lost Rs 2,226 crore in 2007-08, Rs 7,189 crore in 2008-09 and Rs 5,551 crore in 2009-10. The carrier got Rs 800 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 1,200 crore in 2010-11 from the government. A proposed infusion of another Rs 1,200 crore in the current financial year will take the equity base of the airline to Rs 3,345 crore.