Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews Jan 15, 2012   The hearing of (erstwhile) Air India engineers that filed a petition 3 months back against the hiving of the engineering subsidiary and Indian Airlines engineers that filed the petition one month back (clubbed together by the Bombay High Court) will be held on Jan 16, AerospaceDiary learns. Air India management in response to the case filed by its union wrote to the court  -AerospaceDiary has viewed the contents- says: “it is permissible by law for Air India to hive off its MRO business and in any view of the matter the same cannot be the subject matter of judicial review under Article 226 of the Constitution of India…..Further, it is a settled position in law that even if some persons are at disadvantage and suffer losses on account of formulation and implementation of government policy, that is not sufficient for interference by the Court.” It goes on to say: “The survival of Air India is at stake….” There are some concerns over job...

Neelam Mathews Sept 8, 2012 Even as the proposal for two subsidiary units for Air India—Air India Engineering Services and Air India Transport- one for engineering and another other for ground handling, has been cleared by the Cabinet, we might just be entering into the realm of a known subject- strikes. About 40 percent of Air India employees (12,000) will  be transferred to Air India Transport with an authorised capital of Rs 1,000 crore . One isn’t sure about the engineering unit. What is clear is that this will not go down well with the erstwhile Indian Airlines engineering team who have time and again said they have been given a step motherly treatment after the merger. Air India management has turned a blind eye and deaf ears to this issue. Nothing has been done for five years since the merger to address the insecurities  of engineers (nor pilots) as “technical issues are still to be sorted out". Concerns relate to salary scales, allowances and care...