(a) the steps taken by the Govenment to revamp Air India and Indian Airlines;
(b) whether the Government had received any request from the Ministry of Tourism to encourage more and more air services from India to foreign countries and vice-versa;
(c) if so, the details thereof; and
(d) the details of the flights of Air India/Indian Airlines and the number of passengers travelled by Air India and Indian Airlines, the income generated through it in the last three years;
THE MINISTER OF CIVIL AVIATION (SHRI SHARAD YADAV)
(a): Air India and Indian Airlines have Air India has taken
following steps to revamp its financial performance:-
AIR INDIA
(i) Marketing efforts have been stepped up to generate
additional revenue; (ii) Network rationalization and
consolidation with emphasis placed on route profitability;
(iii) Reduction in expenditure on outside repairs of
aircraft by undertaking more in-house repairs; (iv) Several
posts of India based officers abroad have been abolished;
(v) Rolling back of retirement age from 60 to 58 years.
INDIAN AIRLLINES
(i) Increased utilisation of aircraft; (ii) Deployment of
capacity on the criteria of economics and traffic demand;
(iii) Marketing initiatives; (iv) Improvement in customer
services (v) Rolling back of retirement age from 60 to 58
years.
(b) and (c):- Yes, Sir. The Ministry of Tourism have
requested for increase of international operations to and
from India.
d) Details of the international flights of passengers
carried and the revenue earned by Air India and Indian
Airlines during the last three years is as under:-
Year No. of flights No. of pax Revenue (in crores)
Air 96-97 6320 2910556 2554.00 India 97-98 6188 2933117 2745.06 98-99 6136 3041201 2907.40
Indian 96-97 9262 960000 620.27 Airlines 97-98 10816 1110000 805.61 98-99 11821 1160000 880.00