Kishore Chanda Deo committee opposes merger of AI-Indian Airlines

New Delhi, Mar 12 (ANI): The Kishore Chandra Deo committee's fourth report has observed that the root cause of the ills plaguing the National Aviation Company India (NACIL) was the 'merger' of Indian Airlines and Air India.

Deo in his report observed that the so-called merger is a kind of marriage between two incompatible individuals having wide variances with hardly any meeting ground.

The committee has recommended that in order to improve the health of NACIL, it is imperative that NACIL be made into a holding company under which two separate wings NACIL-Indian Airlines with its headquarters in New Delhi and NACIL-Air India with its headquarters at Mumbai, each headed by Managing Director who shall report to NACIL.

The committee further observed that all the losses attributable to merger of IA and AI should be recouped by the government, as the decision of merger was a policy decision spearheaded by the Ministry-in-charge.

The committee also said that there is an urgent need for route rationalisation and route allocation since prime commercial routes were being allocated to private airlines.

For this purpose Civil Aviation Ministry should conduct a transparent review of the entire route and slot allocations to ensure that NACIL is neither put at any disadvantage nor appear to be placed in any disadvantageous position, it said.

The committee observed that utilisation of aircraft in the company is at a low of nine hours per day, while the benchmark is at 16 hours per day.

Hence, NACIL should take necessary steps to increase the utilisation of aircrafts.

The committee further recommended that capital infusion into the ailing public airline to make the company credit worthy for its operational credit requirements has become imperative to salvage the remnants of the legendary airlines.

The committee also emphasised the need for ground handling by NACIL, corporate work culture, and training.

Recognizing the fact that the employees of any organization and their welfare are key to the success of any organisation, the committee recommended fair treatment to loyal employees.

On issues relating to service matters, the committee recommended that no unilateral decision should be forced upon and the genuine aspirations of the officers in each cadre should be addressed judiciously.

The assurance made to the employees before the merger of the two organizations that "no employee would be placed at a disadvantage at any stage", must be fulfilled, the committee recommended.(ANI)