When honor's at stake, this vow I will make: that it's all for one and all for love

The lyrics of the Bryan Adams, Sting & Rod Stewart song come to mind when you see the present situation in the #IndianSkies these days.

"When its love you give, then in love you live,

I'll be the rock you can build on,

be there when you're old,

to have and to hold"

The pilots of #AirIndia for long have lived this promise, treated the airline like their "personal property", I can't seem to use any other phrase for the simple reason that I can't imagine ONE organization in the world where the operations is not paid for six months and the staff reports for duty every single day without fail, without derailing the operations and most importantly without a single incident. (Incident in aviation terminology is defined as an occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft that affects or could affect the safety of operations).

It is important at this point in time in order to put things in perspective :-

1. Most airlines in the world are going through tough times, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa & Emirates have all posted losses. American Airlines has filed for bankruptcy. Rising oil costs and falling fares are seeing an average of one major airline folding every month across the world (Malev, Jat, BMi, SpanAir).
2. Privatization is not the bane of all problems, there are many examples of such which have fallen right through. Many airlines went through privatization before they collapsed.
3. A lot can be blamed on the merger, but I for one believe that it was a decision taken at a point in time where it was believed that a lot of synergies exist which could have been capitalized. But a clear lack of understanding of a highly specialized service industry made things difficult. It is one of the factors but not the only factor.

So let's tabulate what is it that is being asked for :-

1. Pay salaries upto March 2012.... which means they still are okay with over 4 months of salary not being paid. I can't imagine anything else except passion and a commitment to make things work will bring such an attitude. They could have been unreasonable and said pay up or else.... But no, the pilots are still trying to make things work.
2. When the 777's were ordered, they were supposed to do 15+hrs of non-stop flying, which brought about sectors like Delhi-Chicago, Delhi-New York, Mumbai-Newark and lets not forget, Delhi-Melbourne/Sydney (during the commonwealth games). Now these flights are operated with 2 sets of crew (2 captains & 2 first officers) in order to adhere to FDTL. Now since you had a government babu placing an order based on a L1 situation he didn't realize the importance of a crew rest area (which almost all ULH 777s across the world have). So now you have a Rolls Royce with no seats in it. So what happens, Air India does a makeshift arrangement and allocates 2 business class seats for the crew to rest up. But again, these poor pilots are sitting in the middle of people who want food and service and have paid a lot for it. Now the only other way out is to put them in first class where the seats are segregated and they don't interfere with the normal operation of services on the flight.
3.  Commonality of flight deck is a big thing,which means that if a pilot is on a 777 he can convert to a 787 with a short 5-10day course, while a non-boeing pilot will take upto 45 days to do the same. Now it makes a lot more economic sense to send the 777 pilots for this. However, as you'll read below, common sense seems to elude the powers that be.

If the pilots didn't screw things up, the pertinent question is who did then?

1. The Govt. of India instead of sending civil aviation professionals and experts in the midst of one of the most complex mergers ever insisted on sending Jt. Secretary after Jt. Secretary, Courteousness eludes most of the bureaucracy and imagine putting them in a service industry and that too a highly specialized service industry. Any professional appointment from outside like Baldouf were sent packing in under 9 months. So it is not Air India that is responsible for sucking money faster than a blackhole, it is the government that should have put in the money and demanded results instead of putting in the money and then trying to run the show.
2. The consequence of multiple sackings (unceremonious) meant that you either toe the line or get out, so there came the birth of the "yes-men" in the management, so now you have a weak management that cannot stand up to do anything tangible. So all that you have now are a bunch of well paid people who do not have any stake in the future of the airline, but are merely biding their time in the airline until they can get a better posting elsewhere.
3. To make things worse, an attitude which reeked of semi-fascist regime, it was decided that the best way to rule was to divide. So what can be the best way to create a rift? Let one section fight with the other. How do you achieve that? Simple, pass on entitlement to someone else. The one who is entitled will fight for their rights quickly putting them on the war path with the other side. So send the IC pilots to convert to the 787, despite the fact that they do not have long haul experience or most importantly commonality of flight deck. It takes 5-10 days to convert from a 777 to a 787, while it would take 40 days to convert from an Airbus320 to a 787.

So let's see who has to gain in various situations :-

1. Shut down Air India - Lots of land to be sold in prime area in various parts of the country.
2. Privatize Air India - Sell it for a song, make a lot of money mid-way.

Either way the pilots have nothing to gain, so why going on an agitation is going to do anything for them?

Let's face one fact, that those who are most concerned about the organization are the ones who will step into the situation irrespective of if it concerns them or not. It is time we respect them and support them. All they ask for is a dialogue with the Government which is being denied to them.

Don't lay our love to rest 'cause we could stand up to you test. We got everything and more than we had planned, more than the rivers that run the land. We've got it all in our hands.

Source: http://lyrics-a-plenty.com/a/all_for_love.lyrics.php

Don't lay our love to rest 'cause we could stand up to you test. We got everything and more than we had planned, more than the rivers that run the land. We've got it all in our hands.

Source: http://lyrics-a-plenty.com/a/all_for_love.lyrics.php

Don't lay our love to rest,
'cause we could stand up to you test. 
We got everything and more than we had planned, 
more than the rivers that run the land. 
We've got it all in our hands.