Some familiar pictures are back on our front pages. Air India pilots, who are among the best paid in the industry today are on strike, causing flights to be cancelled and a lot of hardship to thousands of passengers. The last time they struck work was two years ago.

There was a time when Air India employees used to agitate quite a lot and on or the other section – cabin crew, engineers, pilots – threatened to go on strike. More often than not, the company used to blink first and concede the demands. At that time, Air India was a profitable organisation. It was also the monopoly (along with India Airlines) so a strike meant that passengers had no other choices.

Today the airline, which is composed of the erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines is not only a bigger organisation but is also carrying huge losses, estimated at over Rs 13300 crores as per a statement in the Rajya Sabha in March. It has lost market share and its brand equity is at its lowest. Many experts are saying it should be wound up.

At such a time to go on strike seems overly irresponsible. What is more, the pilots have defied court orders to halt the agitation. Many experts also claim that the pilots earn very well so they have no business demanding more. All these are valid arguments.

The strikers, 600 of them, belong to the erstwhile Indian Airlines who want parity with their Air India colleagues. The merger clearly was a hastily conceived one with no thought given to cultural differences, to say nothing of wage gaps between the two companies. This was surely one of the most ill-thought out decisions of the former aviation minister Praful Patel. The pilots also want their arrears, which are three years old, to be paid.

But while we can criticise the pilots and their irresponsible behaviour, some of the points they have raised deserve close attention. One of the things pilots (and others) have been saying for a long time is that the airline shut down many profitable routes which generated a lot of revenue. Soon enough, private airlines moved into the market gap and made money on the same routes. Secondly, the strikers claim that more than just losses, what needs to be looked is the endemic corruption in the company. No details have been given so commenting on this allegation is difficult, but this is surely something that is worth probing.

The bigger question is why things have come to this pass. How did a prestigious airline become a national embarrassment and run up such huge losses. The short answer is political interference. These airlines were seen by political (and bureaucratic) bosses as their personal fiefdom, to be run as the private carrier of top bosses rather than as a full-fledged commercial entity. Forget the free passes, the upgrades and the interference in every aspect of its running; big decisions such as purchasing aircraft or opening routes were subject to high-level political intervention. At a time when private airlines were growing rapidly because of increasing travel by Indians, Air India was floundering though Indian Airlines held up to competition quite well.

The government, which went on a privatisation programme to get rid of loss making public sector companies, never ever considered handing over Air India to the private sector or even going public. That would mean loss of control over a glamorous asset, which would not do. How would the babu and the neta travel first class with his family then?

The travails of this airline are not the result of poor decisions taken in the last three or four years. The problems are endemic and systemic. Unless the government completely withdraws from the company it will never survive. It is only just alive because the losses are being absorbed by the tax payer, that is you and me. If it was a private airline it would have shut down years ago.

Is there any way to salvage the situation? For one thing, the concept of a national flag carrier is outdated. Many so-called flag carriers have been privatised or sold to foreign companies. Privatisation may not be an answer since no one will want to carry the losses and certainly no one will take on the thousands of employees that the humungous organisation has (last estimate was over 30,000). Air India could have been privatised as part of the early liberalisation process when the company was doing well; today it would be almost impossible.

Yet, all is not lost. The company has many assets, including aircraft, real estate and most important skills. Given the poor state of aviation in India today – fake pilots, shabby crew, engineering etc. – skilled people would always be in demand. And whatever one says, the brand is not completely dead—it can be revived. But this will require drastic surgery and some very tough decisions, including a fool proof way to keep politicians and bureaucrats from interfering in the running of the company. If that can be done, maybe Air India has a chance. Otherwise it would be best to just cut your losses and big goodbye, because the losses are only going to increase. Is the government willing to do this?

You can write to Sidharth at   wideangle@personalfn.com

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