case study: air india
TRANSCRIPT
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A Case study
-Siddhardha Karanam
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INDEX
Abstract......................................................................4
Mission statement.....................................................4
Introduction...............................................................4
Organizational structure...........................................7
Organizational culture..............................................9
PESTL analysis.........................................................9
SWOT analysis..........................................................14
Porter’s five forces analysis....................................15
Risk analysis.............................................................17
Change management: Air-India..............................18
Seven steps action plan to survive Air-India........21
The role of power and politics................................23
Human factors..........................................................24
Leadership development in Air-India....................26
Recommendations...................................................28
References...............................................................29
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Abstract:
Air-India was the India’s finest flying ambassador. In recent years Air-India was
subjected to many changes, like merge with Indian Airlines, strike from the pilots etc.
This report presents the complete over view of the company and includes the
organizational structure and culture of the company. The report gives you the
complete lists of analysis, like SWOT, PESTL etc. This report also concentrates on
IS/IT changes, leadership development and change management issues, within the
organization.
Mission statement:
To provide a high quality, safe, convenient and efficient air travel service that
consistently meets our customer's needs in a way that ensures our profitability and
long term success.
Introduction:
History of the company:
Air – India was operating flights to the countries of Europe, USA, Africa and the other
parts of the world, from Mumbai (India) as centre. The company was well known as
the first "All-Jet” air lines. First it was started as Tata-Air lines in 1932, now it was
government owned and well known as Air-India. Once it was called as little jewel of
air lines, but its reputation gone badly as service and profits are gone down. But the
necessary actions were taken by the management; put it back on the track. Air-India
serves about three million passengers every year.
The origins:
Air-India was started as TATA air lines in the year of 1932, named after J R D TATA,
its founder. First it serves as domestics air lines, which serves between the Indian
cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmadabad etc, later it starts the services to
Pakistan. In the year 1946, at the end of the world II, it became a public limited
company and named as Air-India limited. With in no time, the government won 49%
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of its shares and started international services with regular flights to London,
Geneva, Cairo etc, and then it was entitled as Air-India international limited.
Air-India was most successful at the beginning. The company utilizes the native born
Indian pilots, where as other companies’ imports from the foreign countries, which in
turn reduces many costs. This became the biggest advantage for Air- India as the
foreign pilots are expensive.
At first, the Indian government operates two air line corporations Indian air lines
along with Air-India, which serves the domestic Indian purposes. Later it was merged
with Air-India. In the beginning days, Air-India faces intense competition from the
major air line companies regarding the routes, as many new companies are entering
the industry and got licenses to fly over Indian skies. To solve this problem, the
government of India takes control over all the air line companies flying over its
borders. By the year of 1960 the Air-India got the international routes for Singapore,
Malaysia, New York, Moscow and Sydney. In the year of 1962, the company was
entitled as Air-India International and it became the world’s first All Jet air line. Along
with the passengers, cargo is the main part of the Air-India’s business. The main
source of its cargos is European countries, USA, Japan and Gulf countries. Air-India
was ranked as 19th biggest air line in the world.
The dark ages:
From the beginning of 1970s, Air-India faces many difficulties. The economic
recession, all over the world, shows a huge impact on the company during this time.
In additional to this effect, as the company was owned by the government, it kept the
routes which are yielding losses as open, as for the prestigious purposes. Whereas
other commercial air-lines close all these routes. For example the route from Mumbai
to New York, yields losses for three years from 1972 to 1975, but the route was
simply kept open. Another challenge faced by Air-India was the competition from
other air lines in carrying foreign passengers. Air-India mostly depends on local
passengers for the business. Due to this the air fares have to be kept low, this leads
to losses, some times. Another problem was the shortage of tourists from the other
countries. Communal violence and the political situations in India after the
assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lead to decline in tourism during the
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periods from 1982-1985. In recent times the terrorist attacks in major air ports of
India are also leads to the decrement in the foreign passengers travelling to India.
The darkest spot on Air-India history was, the crash of one of its Boeing 747 with 329
foreign passengers, in to the sea, in June 1985.
During the years 1991-1995, Air-India losses $171 million. And it got bad reputation
for poor services and facilities. To avoid this, the company planned to increase its
reserve cash by selling its Hotel Corporation in Indian sub continent, worth of $220
million and some old Boeing 747s, worth of $60million. Despite all of this the
company owes $900 million for its new air craft purchases. Another issue to be
considered is the shortage of medium-sized air crafts. Most of its flights are huge,
which intern increases the operational costs. These big sized air crafts are too large
to be profitable. Actually these flights are meant for the business with gulf countries,
but the company has to be desperate to buy some small sized air planes to reduce
the over head costs.
As the recovery programmes were placed in the organization, and the profit of $10
million was shown at the end of the year 1997. But later it was announced that it was
actually $10 million loss. The company was planning for a private collaboration from
other air lines, but which was not accepted by many of the employees and the
government of India. And the company plans to reduce the pay roll by $40 million by
closing some unprofitable routes and reducing the employment, which leads to a
strike by the employees and the pilots. Despite all of this recovery, it was an open
secret that it will take at least 3 more years are required for the company to come
over the losses. However, it was a known truth that many changes have to be made
to recover from losses.
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Organizational structure:
(Source: http://home.airindia.in/SBCMS/Webpages/Annexure.aspx)
Evolution of the company:
Air-India is the official Indian national flag carrier. The mascot of maha raja of the
company is pretty famous and the company was well recognized at global level. It
has 15,236 employees all over India. Although it was running in losses, they are very
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confident about the company will yield profits in the next two quarters. The main
hubs of Air-India are Indira Gandhi international airport in Delhi and Chatrapathi
sivaji terminal in Mumbai, it was operating two international hubs in Frankfurt and
London, to review their performance and to serve their customers.
In 2007, Air India was merged with Indian Airlines to form the National Aviation
Corporation of India Limited which will maintain its brand. Air-India was started as
TATA air lines in the year of 1932, named after J R D TATA, its founder. First it
serves only domestic purposes. In the year 1946, at the end of the world II, it
became a public limited company and named as Air-India limited. With in no time,
the government won 49% of its shares and started international services with regular
flights to London, Geneva, Cairo etc, and then it was entitled as Air-India
international limited. The fleet of Air-India consists of 147 aircrafts and the details are
given below
Air bus A-310 - 8
Air bus A-319 - 15
Air bus A-320 - 43
Air bus A-321 - 12
Air bus A-330 - 2
Boeing 737-800 - 22
Boeing 747 - 6
Boeing 737 - 5
Boeing 777 - 14
Airbus A-330 Freighters - 4
Boeing 737 freighters - 6
ATR* - 7
CRJ 700 - 3
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Organizational culture:
From the past three years, Air-India is yielding continuous losses, but they have
implemented a strategy to overcome these hard times. The causes for this situation
are, poor handling of resources and lack of good relationship with the staff and
workers. Before two years, a strike was announced against the management, which
further drags the company into losses. So the improper functioning of organization
culture is the major issue.
The management of Air-India was completely Indian management, so no issue of
cultural differences will be there, but actually India itself known as a sub continent,
consisting of several cultures. So these cultural differences may causes to clashes
between the employees. For example, in June 2009, a clash occurs between the
pilots of different states, during the landing time of an aircraft, this issue became a
dark spot for Air-India’s organizational culture. As Air-India was operating its sub
hubs in London and Frankfurt, but the management in the hubs are Indians.
Although the Indian management in the other countries is skilful, the persons with
local knowledge are required for the efficient handling of local issues. But the
management saying that, Air-India was a government organization, the managers
should be an Indian born. All the pilots of Air-India are Indian born; they are more
skilful and available at less cost. So some cultural changes needed for Air-India, to
handle the international issues.
PESTL analysis:
PESTL analysis is a frame work, which is used to analyze the external factors acting
on an organization and to recognize their impact on the organization. PESTL full
form is political, economical, social, technological and legal factors.
Political factors:
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In a country like India we cannot see any organization without political influences. It
is an open secret that every issue has political interferences, in India. Some of those
political factors are given below
The political situation in a country may influence the minds of the air
travellers. The unstable political conditions in India, creating an ambiguity in
the minds of the passengers, travelling to India. It affects Air-India, indirectly.
The route between Kashmir and other major countries was closed by Air-
India, due to the border problems with Pakistan. And terrorism is a major
issue, which was stopping many foreign tourists, coming to India
Major political issue of the decade, which affects the air-line industry, was
September 11 incident. Due to the fear of terrorism and the involvement of air
planes in the industry, a huge drop in air traffic occurred
In a corrupted country like India, the state owned industry Air-India has to face
many problems in route clearances, permits and licences and offering free
seats to political leaders etc.
As it was a state owned company, it kept the routes, which are yielding
constant losses as open, because of prestigious issues. Which pushes the
organization into losses
Economical factors:
The economical factors, which was acting upon Air-India are
Due the financial recession in recent year, people are thinking that air travel is
luxury and expensive. So a considerable decline in the no. of passengers
occurred, which in turn leads to reduce in ticket prices
After the September 11 incidents, the world economy is facing a great
recession. Even biggest companies of India cut the air-travel facilities to their
managers and giving them first class train tickets
The decline in income of Air-India leads to more operational costs and huge
insurance costs, which was increased after WTC destruction. This makes Air-
India to lay off its employees, which further fuelled the recession as spending
decreased due to the rise in unemployment.
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And the biggest economical factor, which is influencing the Air-India was lack
of midsized aircrafts, which intern increase the operational costs of its big size
aircrafts for the routes, which are yielding losses.
Even the SARS (disease) outbreak in the Far East was a major cause for
slump in the airline industry. Even the Indian carriers like Air India was deeply
affected as many flights were cancelled due to internal (employee relations)
as well as external problems.
Social factors:
These factors tells about the effects of social groups and social issues on the
organization as fallows
The rapid changing in the travelling habits of passengers has a great effect on
air line industry. Especially in the developing countries like India, travellers
came from various income groups. The air lines have to concentrate on each
group and have to provide satisfactory services accordingly. The main
passengers of Air-India are from low income group, so it has to concentrate
on the low income group passengers and their habits of travel and have to
serve them accordingly, like type of food provided, quality of services etc, in
order to satisfy them
As India was a multi cultured country, the passengers may come from various
religions and expects more customisation, for example a Brahmin customer
will be satisfied, when the passenger, just beside him also a Brahmin, at least
a vegetarian. So he expects change of seats can be possible.
Another biggest issue is services in the air plane. Air-India has a poor
performance in this section. It has to improve its services in order to create a
user friendly atmosphere in the air plane.
Technological factors:
The increasing usage of internet provides huge opportunities for air line industries.
Such technological factors are given below
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Air-India provides many online services for its customers such as online ticket
booking, flight information updates, and customer queries. But still some
inconsistency is there in flight updates
Many of the international air lines are providing internet access for their
business class passengers; this service has a poor performance in Air-India,
which may make the business class customers to choose other air lines, who
pays more for the company.
The Authority is developing modern communication, navigation, surveillance,
and air traffic management systems for India’s aviation sector that will help
the country meet the expected growth and demand for air passenger and
cargo service over the next decade.
Providing total body scanners at the Indian airports may leads to feel more
security for the passengers, which intern makes them to travel with comfort
and security.
Legal factors:
These factors tells about the laws and barriers for the company according to various
legal factors
As Air-India was a state owned company, it has to face many legal issues in
order to make a decision, as the decision has to processed through various
levels of management
In order to get licences and route clearances, the company has to undergo to
the government processes, starting from aviation minister and involving many
legal issues.
As Air-India was owned by the government, it has to suffer from many
archaic laws, applies only for it, such as free seats to ministers, retirement
age of pilots and air-hostess and the labour regulations, which intern makes
the management less flexible in making new decisions, as the decision
making process has to be done in the presence of strong employee union.
These barriers will not be there for privately owned companies
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The heavy control and interface with the government affects the quality of the
service as well as type of services that has to be provided in order to satisfy
all of the customers from various countries and various cultures. Non of these
issues will not affect the privately owned air lines
SWOT analysis:
Strengths:
Air-India is India’s finest flying ambassador. It is the largest air carrier in India
in terms of traffic volume and business
AIR-India consists of most updated fleet and repair and maintenance
expertise
Efficient usage of information technology for providing customer services such
as flight information and online booking
Good reputation at domestic as well as global level
Biggest advantage is, the company has the financial support from the
government
Strong brand name at national level
Firmly established infrastructure
Air-India owns the rights to travel to 96 destinations, all over the world
Biggest advantage of Air-India was, it has prime packing spaces
It was a monopoly in specific international routes
Weaknesses:
Declines in the profits and poor utilization of capacity
Lack of clarity in strategic planning and poor management planning
Intense competition at the level of low cost carriers
Compulsion to be a public sector organization and the high cost structures of
Air-India are pushing the company into losses
The company’s strategies in the perspective of human resources, is very poor
Intense competition in the field of aviation and the decrement in market share
Poor performance in terms of over head cost controlling
Bad reputation in terms of in-flight services
Lack of clarity in the efficient usage of resources
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Poor aircraft maintenance
Man power ratio with aircrafts is very high
Low feet size
Level of corruption, within the organization
Opportunities:
Faster growing aviation industry in India
The regulations of aviation, at global level are made easy by the world
aviation authority, which leads easy access to the skies and the chance of
getting route clearances is very easy
Strong regulations by the Indian aviation ministry and strong security system
attracting more tourists despite of the threat from the terrorists, which intern
provides more opportunities for the air line industries
Very good time to introduce low cost carriers (LCCs)
The business class customers are less price conscious and expects quality
service, it will be a great opportunity to Air-India to gain more customers by
providing high quality services
Availability of highly skilled native-born pilots at low costs
Threats:
Many new entrants in aviation industry at domestic level
The price war triggered by the major air line industries, all over the world
Immense and aggressive competition from the rival air line companies
Chance to go into the collaboration with privately owned organizations
Barriers for the business by various laws of the government, as it was owned
by the state
Increase in fuel prices, all over the world
The Indian railway had rapidly increasing the services and speed in between
its long distance as well as short distance destinations, by providing more
number of trains and they their prices are lower than the prices of Air-India’s
low cost carrier services. Due to this the travellers were more attracted
towards trains rather than air travel.
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Porter’s five forces analysis:
(Source: http://www.markintell.com/porters-five-forces-analysis/ )
Porter’s five force analysis is a frame work used for the industry analysis of an
organization. It was used to recognize the current market position of the
organization.
Threats of new entrants:
Threats from new entrants for Air-India is very high
The initial investment for the new entrants into the air lines industry is very huge in
amount. In olden days, it is very difficult to start a new air line company, but in recent
times, banks are providing good opportunities to the new entrants, by providing long
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term loans with less interest rate. So this will be a threat for Air-India from the
upcoming and new domestic air lines
Threats from the competitors:
Threats from the competitors for Air-India is very high
The competitive rivalry within the air line industry is very intense, as many major air
lines are operating the flights to the same destinations, all over the world. Air-India is
facing major threats from the industry competitors like emirates, king fisher and Air
Asia etc. The major air line companies are very aggressively competing each other
by offering travellers privileges for regular customers, reducing the fares and offering
high quality services etc, to attract more customers than their rival companies. So
Air-India was facing high threat from its rival companies
Bargaining power of the buyers:
The threat from the buyers is intensively high for an organization like Air-India.
As more domestic and international air line companies are operating their flights to
the same destinations with low travelling fairs, the customer can choose from a wide
variety of travelling plans offered by the different companies. Then the power of the
buyer is very high, as the competition between the companies is more. Air-India is
already running in losses, the customer may demand more. At international level this
buyer threat is somewhat moderate, but at domestic level, it was very high.
Threats from the substitutes:
Threats from substitute products is very less for Air-India
Air lines are the fastest possible ways to travel from place to place, so there is less
threat from the substitutes. However, by considering at domestic level, the
customers can choose railways or road ways that are connecting different places.
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But still it is time consuming. The only one factor that makes people to think about
alternate travel options like trains or buses is the cost of air travel, which was
expensive for the people of developing countries like India. So there is a little threat
at domestic level, but very less threat at international level
Bargaining power of suppliers:
The threat from the bargaining power suppliers is moderate for Air-India.
Suppliers for Air-India are very less in number. The major suppliers for the company
are Boeing and Airbus. From the international aviation surveys, there is no cutthroat
competition between Boeing and Air bus, so there less chance of bargaining with the
customer. However an air line company like Air-India, which was running in losses,
the suppliers may demand regarding the payment options. And it was already known
that, Air-India already owes $90 million to Boeing.
Risk analysis of Air-India:
Being the first air lines in the country, Air-India has the advantage. In today’s
business circle, everything was involved with risk, such as substitute products, no. of
new entries etc. But a formal risk analysis tells about the risk factors and the actions
have to take, to eliminate those risks.
Risk assessment:
EHS risk management of Air-India is the key procedure to recognize the all
possible risks
Risks related to the fuel economy. As Air-India is using mostly Airbus A-320,
which are not fuel efficient. Air-India eliminates this risk by buying and
operating small sized planes between the less profitable routes.
Risk of terrorism. As Air-India was operating from India, the security is always
a big risk. Recent attacks on airports and hijacking of aircrafts reveal that
security is a major risk factor. Air-India tries to eliminates this risk by
implementing new security systems and special bomb squads
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So the air bus made sure to have few directives and methods to take the
responsibility to reduce the risks. As a part of this the company tried to
improve EHS and tries to eliminate all of the risks
Risks regarding to the over head costs. Air-India was operating its flights
between the routes, which are yielding constant losses, for the prestigious
purpose of the government and the interest have to be paid to the suppliers
(Boeing and airbus), will be the extra burdens for the company, regarding the
costs of over head.
So, Air-India took all the necessary steps, where ever required including
security and economical regions, to overcome all these risk factors. But still,
the company was not handling the risks, very efficiently.
Change management of Air-India:
Change management is a set of highly efficient tools and specialities which leads to
a successful change process. The changes cannot be analyzed not only with soft
skills, which yields subjective outcomes, but also measured in terms of customer
satisfaction, speed of delivery and quality of service etc. Whenever a company
undergoes a change it is considered as the core process and when the process is
carried out they will often have heavy and inflexible process, so the main aim should
be like achieving the efficient change process. The general steps involved, whenever
a change was made in Air-India, it fallows the steps, designed by EADS. Examples
of such steps are as follows; consider the change of establishing a new route by Air-
India
1. Significance and necessity of the change has to be recognized. Think about
the necessity of the new route and develop questionnaire, is the change was
really required?
2. The change have to be placed in the management system which has to make
decision as well as in the PDM system
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3. Once the change was placed, then an internal checking has to be done
4. In this step, if the request for the change is accepted after through checking,
then the selection of new route is authorized
5. Then the change has to be documented
6. Then the a request of change have to be handled to investigation section
7. Approval of the change from the investigation department
8. When an external change is requested along with investigation task is made
displayed on the work list of landing gear provider. In this links to documents
are also available
9. Implying the engineers on change proposal is performed then the solution is
accepted by the technical point of view. Following with the proposal offers,
counter offers and finally acceptance is done.
10. The solutions also have to be rechecked and program level and an order for
change has to be generated at program level
11. Task is defined so as to perform and realize the change which is linked with
work order.
12. After this, the change has to be implemented in various phases
13. Models and their related documents are produced and uploaded on the PDM
system with status, document number and version.
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(Source:
http://www.prostep.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ProSTEPiViP/Events/Symposium-
2008/Programm/PSI_Symposium_2008_Pr_sentation_Hofmann_M_ller.pdf)
Change of data base system and comprehensive user training:
Air-India manages the cultural change within the organization by providing
comprehensive user training. In the year 2006, the organization has implemented a
range of oracle based e-business application suit for efficient handling of business
data bases. For training purposes, Air-India sent 40 members of its skilled
employees to Oracle University. This implementation receives positive feedback
from the staff. The positive responses from the staff promoted a cultural shift within
the organization.
Cultural shift within the organization:
The Air-India’s objective, when it is ending their employees for training is to prove
that the Oracle database was workable. Because each failure of implementation of
an IT package leads to less acceptance rate, within the organization. The staff will
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become more stubborn and sceptical for that software, so it is important to get
positive response from the first group of trainees. The airline reported that those who
received training developed a better understanding of the system. Raising
awareness of the system’s capabilities was a key objective and the organization
believed it fulfilled that purpose.
Seven steps action plan to survive Air-India:
Airlines and the millions of passengers they shuttle around the globe share a
common experience: Periods of smooth flying are interspersed with nervous
episodes of gut-wrenching turbulence. Air India is now in the middle of one of those
bumpy patches.
The company incurs a loss of $70 million at the end of the year 2005. The company
was facing a lot of risk in running the company. Later on a seven step action plan
was proposed by the management to rescue the organization. The plan was
explained below
1. Create a crisis:
Tell the blunt truth to the stake holders. Openly announce the current situation and
actions have to be take place, to the stake holders and the staff. Creating the crisis
includes the sense of urgency that has to take hold of the current air line position and
stake holders.
2. Take drastic steps:
Air-India has to take some drastic steps in order to generate some revenue. For
example Air-India can give its iconic nariman house building or New Delhi’s air line
building to the new tenants, instead of losing them and generate some revenue
3. Let the leader to do the job:
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The first step required, to turn over the Air-India’s situation is to have a clear
mandate from the government to establish the new leadership. This can be done by
re-establishing the leadership with the highly talented managers from the private
sector, who can run the air line very effectively.
4. Bringing in talent from private sector:
Air-India has to focus on its long term marketing position as well as it has keep in
mind that they may be adopt the capital investments from the private sectors. After
that, the next step is, bringing the top most executive managers from other private air
line industries.
5. Learn from Satyam experience:
Satyam is the big software company established in India, recently it was closed
down. The main reason for the failure of Satyam is, the individual managers who do
not react when the company was going into heavy losses. Air-India also facing the
same problem with the individual managers. To eliminate this, the organization
needs the managers with high communication skills and feels responsibility for the
loss of the company.
6. Establishment of new network and new fleet:
Small changes in schedule may leads to bigger results. For example the flights of
Air-India will start at 9 am in the morning from the major cities to London, by
changing these timings, such that each flight will set off with ten minutes gap, to
utilize the run ways, air port gates efficiently. Establishing the new fleet by cutting
down the loss yielding routes as well as aircrafts may leads to positive results.
7. Marketing, yields and revenues:
The new management have to take quick steps to yield some revenues and have to
stop loss of market share. For example, establishing new plan such that allocating a
group of employees for each aircraft, who are responsible for each and every issue
of the aircraft.
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The role of power and politics:
Air-India was first started as a private air line service, named after J R D Tata, its
founder. At the end of the Second World War, the government of India bought 49%
of its share, thus it becomes a state owned air lines. As it was owned by the
government, many political issues came to the screen, which controls Air-India’s
operations. As it was operated under the control of the government, the decision
making process takes a long time, as the decision have to come through various
phases of the government, starting from the ministry and management. As the
corruption level in India is very high, it is very difficult to take up new projects or to
get a route clearance. Politics will indulge in each and every issue, including human
resource and procurement. Political issues are one of the significant causes for the
failure of Air-India. The organization has operating its flights in between the
destinations, which are yielding constant losses due to prestige of government and
political pressures. This was the major reason for the revenue loss of Air-India.
Another reason for its failure is, lack of skill due to the reservation system in the jobs
for back ward religions and unstable government.
Merge of Indian Air Lines with Air-India:
On July 15, 2007, the civil aviation minister of India announces the merger of Air-
India with Indian Air lines, to form a united corporation, named as National Aviation
Company of India Ltd (NACIL)
The reasons for this merger are given below
To afford the escalating fuel costs
To with stand for the intense competition from the private and low cost air
lines
To bare the additional costs of adopting new aircrafts
To face the instability and frequent changes in the management
To increase the no. of high class customers.
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To increase the fleet size and to establish a new network
Human factors:
The human factor presents each and every where. Air-India moves all of its human
factors to the centre of all of its operations. By a formal audit, Air-India has tested its
commitment towards its human factors, to ensure that the safety standards are very
high in its aircrafts
Improvement of human factors in Air-India:
Air-India has many human factors, at all of its operations, which are defined with a
reason. The human factors were developed at the earlier stages of Air-India’s
operations. The development process was carried over through the perspective of a
pilot. The major tasks, which have to be performed by a pilot, were
Operate
Navigate
Communicate
Manage
The maximum percentage of accidents (>70%) occurs due to the bad performance
of the pilot. So we can say that human factors are 100% involved in all aircraft
disasters
The objectives of human factors:
It is known that all of the accidents take place due to the human factors. The main
aim of human factors development is to recognize the issues which causes to the
disasters and to find the ways of prevention, such that it won’t happen again. So the
human factors are assigns to each and every domain as fallows
Design phase:
It is the phase which tells about facilities provided for the pilots in the cock pit, the
operations consists of
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Test pilots of flights
Air worthiness engineers
Situational awareness
Automation
Human performance and errors
Operational phase:
Human factors are involved in operational personnel whose activities are:
Operational engineers of the aircrafts
Testing of air crafts
Pilot’s training
Some of the operational personnel issues are
Documentation
Operational standards
Feedback of all works and so on.
Maintenance:
Customer services and design office are included in maintenance domain.
Documentation
Training definition
Feedbacks of all activities
Communication:
In this distribution it is widely spread so it included.
External:
Airlines, scientific committees and so on
Internal:
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Partners and departments
Leadership development in Air-India:
In India all the sectors have showed that leadership is a main concept where it helps
in achieving a great success through many evidences. So linking to the Air-India we
will discuss that its world class leaders programme from 2005 has helped in the
growth of company by giving a brief description how it is linked with learning design,
business context, and strategy, mission and vision
The context of the organization:
From the history of Air-India, we can clearly say that, it is India’s finest flying
ambassador, as it was the first air lines of India; it has the market leadership in India.
Although it was running under losses, from the past 2 years, it was showing constant
growth, by achieving the leadership qualities.
If Air-India core business is mentioned by its service range it has the largest fleet
after the merge with Indian Air lines, in India. Under airbus there are 30000
employees and with turnover of $170 million. Air India has been supporting 10 million
customers, every year.
Corporate vision of Air-India:
To be in the top 5 air lines of Asia, in terms of yield, profitability, productivity,
service, quality and size
Mission:
Focus on customer satisfaction
Growth with emphasis on sustained profitability
Providing exciting and satisfying work environment to retain and develop
employees committed to corporate vision
Focus on social responsibility – environment & community
Leadership challenges:
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Leadership is the main concept where an organisation can run efficiently to meet the
market challenges and maximise with the various cultured differences. So leadership
is the key to make a path for success, growth and prosperity of airbus along with
some specified process, methodologies which is which create an environment with
respect to cultural differences and with the help of ‘Growing together’ strategy airbus
can recognise how leadership and support the overall business. The framework of
human resources practices such as rewards for performance and so on, the
organisation can tell what it wants from its employees and it also helps the leaders
and proprietors of leadership to take the impact of leadership behaviour. Key to
successful implementations can be through shared accountability for leadership
development so by this we can say quality leadership responsibility is not for
selected people but it is the responsibility of everyone
Power of Air-India:
Air-India was the India’s biggest air carrier service. The company was owned by the
government, so it can have a financial back up from the government. Obviously, Air-
India has the large fleet of Aircrafts among all of the air line companies in India. Air-
India has ordered 10 A-380 aircrafts, from Airbus, which shows the buying power of
Air-India. A picture of Air-India’s A-380 aircraft was shown below
Recommendations:
There is a need for Air-India to establish a new fleet with mid and small sized
aircrafts, to serve the less busy routes
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Air-India has to cut down all the unnecessary routes, which are yielding
losses. However for prestigious purposes, they have to run the flights in those
routes, at least they have to provide the list of those routes to the government,
such that the government can subsidize those routes
Air-India has to appoint, highly skilled managers from private sector, in order
to turn over the situation
Instability in the management has to be eliminated, by appointing a firm and
constant management and director, as government is changing the
management frequently.
The ratio of man power to no. of aircrafts has to be reduced, in order to
reduce the staff costs
The unnecessary aircrafts have to be rented or they can sell those aircrafts.
For example, half of Air-India’s Boeing 747 aircrafts are remaining in the
hangers, without regular usage. The company have to gave them for rent or
have to sold them, in order to generate some revenues and to reduce the
maintenance costs
Quality of service and aircraft maintenance have to be improved
The organization have to encourage the private investments, in order to
recover some costs
Collaboration with major international air line companies will be helpful
The pace of decision making process have to be improved
References:
1. Luis, M. J. (2009) Risk Analysis [online] available from
<http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_07.htm>
2. Hofmann, M. (2008) Change Management [online] available from
<http://www.prostep.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ProSTEPiViP/Events/Symposi
um-
2008/Programm/PSI_Symposium_2008_Pr_sentation_Hofmann_M_ller.pdf>
3. (n. d.) vision and mission of Air-India [online] available from
<http://http://www.scribd.com/doc/21053942/Project-On-Air-India> [12-n0v-
2010]
4. (n. d.) review of performance and fleet details [online] available from
<http://http://home.airindia.in/SBCMS/downloads/06_Directors_report.pdf>
[16-nov-2010]
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5. (n. d.) market position analysis of Air India [online] available from
<http://http://www.scribd.com/doc/13366134/Air-India-Analyst-Report> [01-
dec-2010]
6. (n. d.) profile of Air-India [online] available from
<http://http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/34/Air-India-
Limited.html> [11-dec-2010]
7. Dr.Pratip Kar (n. d.) revival strategy of Air-India [online] available from
<http://http://business.rediff.com/column/2009/jul/13/guest-valuable-lessons-
for-air-indias-revival.htm> [21-dec-2010]
8. (n. d.) action plan for Air-India's revival [online] available from
<http://http://www.ndp.ca/press/air-india-action-plan-promising-but-falls-short-
ndp> [30-dec-2010]
9. (n. d.) organizational structure of Air-India [online] available from
<http://http://home.airindia.in/SBCMS/Webpages/Annexure.aspx> [06-jan-
2011]
10. (n. d.) cost structures for Air-India [online] available from
<http://http://boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/2009/07/10/how-business-
lessons-from-airasia-can-rescue-the-battered-air-india-brand/> [20-jan-2011]
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THANK YOU