TravTalk India Online Magazine
Air India assures that travel agents needn’t worry about losing their money, as the airline fast approaches the disinvestment reality. Meenakshi Malik, Executive Director – Commercial, Air India, claims that business will be in order by the end of the upcoming financial year.
Nisha Verma
Year 2019 turned out to be quite an eventful one for Air India in terms of international routes, claimed Meenakshi Malik. “Since February 2019, we have added around 12 international flights to our network. In addition, we re-aligned some flights like Delhi-Seoul, which we were earlier connecting via Hong Kong. It is now a direct flight, which operates four days a week and is doing very well not just in terms of passenger numbers, but also in terms of cargo carried. Another premium flight is Amritsar-Stansted, which is doing very well,” she said. The airline is now planning to connect Stansted via Mumbai and has increased frequency on Delhi- Tel Aviv. Hence, in the summer schedule that starts March- end, it will be adding the sixth frequency to Tel Aviv, which will be on Wednesday of every week. Air India is also planning to increase frequency between Mumbai and London.
It will be a change in ownership at the top level. The government would ensure that no one loses money. We have been asking agents not to worry
“At the domestic level,” Malik added, “Ministry of Tourism has highlighted some tourist points and we are planning to begin service on these routes. The government has a vision of 100 airports, and we are already connecting to 83 points along with Alliance Air. We will start operations to the rest of them soon, and we are already working with Ministry of Civil Aviation and MOT for the same.”
Agents shouldn’t worry
As the cloud of disinvestment looms over the national carrier, Air India wants to assure its travel agent partners that “nobody would lose money, even when it is privatised.” Malik clarified, “We have had a meeting with top 20 agents and four tour operators in Delhi, and another meeting with the top business partners in Mumbai, who together give us 90 per cent of our business in India. We wanted to assure them that where Air India is concerned, it will be a change in ownership at the top level. Air India is owned by Government of India, which would ensure that no one loses money. Hence, we have been talking to agents and telling them that they do not have to worry. Rest assured, Air India will be a more agile and better company going forward,” she insisted. “I don’t think anything would be finalised before end of May. By then we would know who the new owner is and by FY 2020-21, things will come in order. I hope that good people come and take over this great brand,” she shared.
Malik added that the carrier had all its schemes for agents in place, including productivity- linked incentives and special deals. “There are plans that starting April, we are going to realign our PLBs, incentives and commissions for agents. We will try to make it more user-friendly and better for the agents,” she shared.
The GDS decision
When asked about getting back on Amadeus, Malik said that while there was no problem with Amadeus, Air India decided to go through a limited tender. “GDS for domes- tic flights was given to one company—Travelport, which was a policy decision we had taken towards the end of 2018. Globally, there could be many GDS. At that time, Amadeus, because of any reason, decided that if they don’t get domestic business, they will not participate with us globally. It was their choice and now, out of their own choice, they have come back and are distributing Air India internationally. Domestic remains exclusive and we have not changed our stand. This has been a great victory for Air India, as we had taken a stand for the betterment of the company.
We received many comments on the same from various organisations, but our decision has eventually been appreciated by everyone and we have saved a huge amount of money. In 2019, we saved ₹225 crore and in 2020, we are estimating to save ₹550 crore. This will go on till 2024, and we will save more than ₹3,700 crore by then. Sabre was also working with us internationally. Their contract got over in 2019 and now we need to renegotiate the rates. They haven’t come back to us for the same, since the rates are not suitable, hence we have not signed the contract. I will not sign high rates and will do what is best for Air India,” Malik asserted.
