Indian PM orders Air India to resume Gulf flights...

The Indian government has overturned Air India’s decision to cancel some of its flights to the Gulf.

Indian Prime Minister has directly intervened to reverse the Air Indian decision and assure cabinet members from Kerala that the airline would continue to operate flights to the Gulf.

However, Air India has not yet been made aware of the government intervention. On Saturday, Air India Express announced that it would be canceling 75 flights from Kerala to the Gulf, including those to Muscat, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Air India was also set to cancel 203 flights to the region from India. The airline blamed the decision on a lack of cabin crew to operate the flights.

My Views -

1. Should Govt. intervene in any of the PSU's operations directly overturning their decision.
2. Even so when the Airline is making huge losses in thousand's of crores which is being covered from the tax payer's pocket.
3. Also, the Govt. is not willing to bail off the Airline so easily & paying off its debt. Then, why intervening in its operational decisions.
4. What a mockery Air India has. On one hand it says its highly overstaff (32,000) people which is nearly 200+ people per aircraft & on the other hand its canceling flights due to lack of cabin crew.
5. Even if the Airline is short staff in one particular department how will Govt. make sure that they will operate flights without putting passengers life at stake.

Is the Govt./Airline listening?

Air India Express cancels 203 flights to Gulf...

A shortage of cabin crew is forcing Air India’s budget carrier, Air India Express, to suspend 203 flights between the sub-continent and the Gulf region, a senior official from the airline has warned.

The cancellations would last from next week until the end of October 2010, and would affect flights to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Muscat and Kuwait.

"No passengers will be affected because of the cancellation, there is a rule that cabin crew should not exceed more than 1,000 hours of flying in a year. There is no way we will be able to meet this target unless we cancel some of the services."

Reports from India suggested that the cancellation had also been caused by the lean season following Ramadan holidays.

"Around 203 (73 from Kozhikode, 74 from Thiruvananthapuram and 56 from Kochi) flights stand cancelled. Some of these flights which originate from here, touch Kochi and then fly to the Middle East. Hence this is taken as two flights and hence the number looks so large," an IANS report claimed, quoting an airline spokesperson.

The flight numbers had been exaggerated, with the airline cancelling only one or two flights per destination.New recruitment policies were under way and that personnel were currently being trained up to solve the cabin crew shortage.