Holy cow in the Air

30,000 crore more for Air India to turn it around. Hope against hope to make this airline profitable, at least the cabinet thinks it can be done. Will this be the last tranche of support for the ever ailing Maharaja. Can it be ever turned around to make it viable and sold out. Only its real estate will be attractive to a buyer, its core operations are mis-managed.

We are perhaps the only country to have a minister for civil aviation whose most important job is to manage Air India apart from setting civil aviation policy. Civil aviation ministers suffer from megalomania, we can add the Rail ministers too to this category. With 63,000 cr debt this institution is surviving because the government has no other option. There is proof around the world that Airline business is difficult to run and the most well managed private airlines are barely profitable. By that standards Air India can never be profitable, its history over the past 2 decades is a proof.

30,000 cr is a lot of money that could have been better put to use by the government. Build quality one room + kitchen houses to 12 lakh poor (2.5 lakh/house) or develop Infrastructure in hundreds of villages.

3 years down the line after spending some 10,000 crore we will be back to the same discussion on how to turn around this white elephant which is constantly bleeding the taxpayer. Meanwhile our politicians and babus must be relieved that their holy cow in the air has survived once again. Else like anyone of us they would have to suffer standing in line to check in and be on time for the flight or shown the door.

Civil aviation industry in India is suffering due to lack of coherent policies and adequate government support. Designing progressive policies, their regulation and monitoring should be government’s job not running unprofitable businesses with taxpayers money.