Air India: What's happening?

The Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report on Air India’s health is no surprise. The essence of the report is that the national carrier has been overstating revenues and understating losses. One view is that it’s more the accounting procedure the airline adopts than a dressing up of its balance sheet to produce a rosy picture. The airline has been living on government funding, that could be stopped if the government acts on the CAG report. What is of concern is that there has never been any action against those who mismanaged the airline over years by buying fuel-guzzlers and then failing to find buyers when they realised their mistake.

Even the measly $329-million Air India got from Boeing as compensation over the delay in supplying aircraft, instead of $710 million it billed them for, is suspect, on whether the airline got this in cash or kind from the aircraft maker. The government must examine this kowtowing to Boeing as if Air India was a supplicant. It is unbelievable that the airline had no written deal with Boeing on compensation to be paid over delays in delivery and aircraft grounding due to technical faults. The airline’s turnaround has been attempted before. What it should do now is get people in the airline business at the helm of affairs. There are top executives of the airline who have retired and who are ready to offer their services to help out Air India free of cost. But for some reason, the government seems disinclined to take up such pragmatic offers.