Privatize Air India

The recent threat by 100 Air India pilots to go on a strike mode has again raised serious questions about the airline management by the Civil Aviation ministry. Although the ministry has toughened its stand and clearly indicated that if this strike persists it would be pushed to a position to shut down international operations, the ground reality is that the government can't even think in those tough lines, for how these politicians and bureaucrats would avail the freebies like foreign tours without the presence of a national carrier. Despite Air India bleeding for decades together and burning taxpayers money, the Civil Aviation ministry has never mulled over the gravity of the issue. And the reasons are quite obvious. Rather not serving the national interests, AI has literally turned into a family carrier for ministers and senior bureaucrats.

When the losses are piling up and there is no turnaround strategy for this business, then why the Civil Aviation ministry is not privatizing Air India? Instead it's lingering on political decisions to infuse more public money into an already bankrupt business. The government must now understand that the disastrous failure of Air India stems from the flawed decisions taken by the ministry in the past. No political decision however looks benevolent is driven by vested interests, and the Civil Aviation ministry is no different either. Irrespective of politicians who have held this ministry in the past, their primary objective has been to cultivate a hand-and-glove rule to embezzle public money through various financial decisions.

Now the big question is that whether Air India can survive the losses for eternity? Perhaps, few years down the line, if the prevailing situation doesn't improve, the government would be forced to shut down the state carrier. So, it's better the ministry should come out with a privatization policy. There are well-documented business cases in airline industry across the globe as how bankrupted national carriers have been privatized and transformed into highly profitable ventures. A case in point is the Germany's national carrier German Airlines. In the 90s this German carrier was in a severe financial mess. However, the German government's decision to privatize it at right time worked wonder. And the Lufthansa's telling story is just another compelling example for transformation of morbid Air India.

So, what's more important at this point in time is to reach at a political consensus to turn around Air India through privatization route. Rather debating on the prestige issue of bleeding Maharaja and spoon feeding it through various financial supports, the ministry must think rational and arrive at a logical conclusion. Privatize it.