Every other day there has been a talk of privatising Air India by even handing it over to big corporates as its debt level is “simply not sustainable”. The historical fact is that nowhere in the world is public sector air transport running at a profit. The respective governments subsidise the loss incurred in public air transportation as it belongs to the common public and comes under the essential services sector. So, it is the government’s responsibility to cross subsidise the losses.
In India, the aggressive policies being followed by the current government have put the public sector in the country at a serious, operational disadvantage. There has been an adoption of measures which amount to a virtual dismantling of the public sector. The motto of the government should be to ‘reach the unreached’ and make all out efforts to revive the national carrier. It has been reported that the airline managed to register an operational profit in 2015-16, which is certainly a positive sign that the airline can be revived. To revive Air India, government officials must involve workers in the decision-making process instead of framing policies while sitting in air-conditioned rooms.
S.K. Khosla,
Chandigarh
