Air India May 30, 2014 Air India clarifies on passages to employees Some incorrect and misleading reporting with regard to Air India’s passage regulations for its employees have been made in Print and Electronic Media recently. An impression has been created that such schemes are available in Air India only and that the airline is losing revenue on account of such facilities to its employees. In order to put the matter in perspective, Air India wishes to clarify that Air India’s Employees passage scheme is in tune with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Resolution 788 which provides for giving free and reduced fare transportation to an employee of an air carrier or to the employee’s immediate family members. Such facilities are also available for the employees of other IATA members on reciprocal basis which is called interline passages. All IATA member airlines world over adhere to such provision. Such passages are given only against vacant seats available and never at the cost of a revenue passenger, hence Air India does not lose anything on account of such concessional passages. Actually, employees have to pay staff travel fare, Passenger service fee and all taxes including Airport tax. In 2013, Air India has restricted the scope of family members and number of passages allowed to employees under the revised scheme. In fact, Air India’s revised passage scheme is much more conservative than that of most of the airlines. It is further clarified that Government officials on deputation to Air India, except the CVO, are not entitled for any such passages. Dear Mr. Goswami, Hope you and your vocal cords are fine after you yelled like a hooligan last night on your TIMES NOW NEWSHOUR debate on Air India. You must be wondering why on earth we would write a letter to you. We want to categorically state through this letter that we do not demand as many answers as you claim during prime time day in & day out. Indeed, if we were to really start demanding answers to the multitude of issues that we 20,000 Air-Indians have to grapple with, you would face a heart-attack and collapse!!! On a lighter note, recently even a NASA astronaut from a far-off International Space Station complained of the Noise-Pollution you create & said he could hear someone yelling “The Nation wants to know!” every night from planet Earth!!! It is not fair, Mr. Goswami. It is not fair to say that a Nation that never asked a single question all these years is now shown to be asking so many questions and that too through you!!! This time, the Nation (er…well... we Air Indians) demands an answer from you... Coming to last nights debate on Air India on your Super Prime Time News Hour, your panel was predictably filled with people who echoed your own views ably. Out of all the panellist, there was just one had a different view. Any half sensible T.V. anchor would have allowed a tiny little space for a divergent view in order to convey the impression to viewers that he is not altogether one sided in his presentation. But not the one-and-only Arnab Goswami! Before demanding answers to irrelevant questions, you should have been aware that we the common employees of Air India get our passage tickets on SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY/LOAD basis, which means the airline never looses its revenue for blocking any passenger seats for employees. You should have had the common sense to understand that the airline does not incur any pecuniary loss inasmuch of the fact that only vacant and otherwise perishable seats are offered to employees. Unfortunately, you created the impression that all employees travel on confirmed passages and the airline flies only the employees & not the passengers. This at the cost of Tax Payers money!!! In fact the lone ex-Air India employee in your panel tried his best to clear the air. But it was in vain as he was bullied down by you!!! You came with a pre-determined mind to ridicule Air India employees. You began with what we consider a well practised technique of trapping someone into either giving you the exact answer you want or take the risk of being put in the same dock you have reserved for those you label Taliban, retrograde, barbaric, inhuman, corrupt, venal, chalta hai species!!! How dare one can differ with the Almighty Arnab Goswami??? You have let the success of your program make you behave like a fake crusader. You have converted your Super Prime Time News Hour Debate into a Kangaroo Court!!! All these for gaining TRP??? Even if you did not get a chance to train at a half-decent school of journalism, you should have learnt at least elementary courtesies from your mentor Pranoy Roy, one of the best, most sophisticated T.V. anchors we ever had. The job of an anchor is to facilitate a discussion, to make available diverse points of view so that viewers can make an informed choice on various subjects, which are outside their own domain of knowledge. But your anchoring is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration. We Air-Indians take strong objection to such petty journalism. We all are professionals, so please stop mocking & ridiculing us. Stop this systematic defaming of the National Carrier. Grow Up and Get Well Regards, Air-Indians ----------------
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 08:04:19 +0000
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