Air-India should perform or perish: Patel

10 Jun 2008

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Air-India should either perform or perish amidst competition from a new crop of international airlines that rely on better services to remain afloat, civil aviation minister Praful Patel said.

The 76-year-old Indian flag-carrier has lost its brand image among travellers over the years and was in fact named the Indian company with the worst corporate reputation by US-based Reputation Institute this year.

"It is a tough statement I make... Either they perform or they perish because ultimately it is a consumer interface," he said in an interview to NDTV on the eve of the 60th anniversary of Air-India's first international flight.

The airline, he said, was finally accountable to its customers and it is customer satisfaction that should drive the airline and not a ministerial diktat from Delhi. Otherwise it would be over-run by competition, he said.

The government last year merged state-run Indian airlines and Air-India in a bid to take on competition on domestic and short-haul international routes from other private international carriers.

But, with private airlines allowed to fly to the Gulf, a route that was the preserve of Air-India, the airline started facing turbulent skies.

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