Austerity anyone? Tottering AI parties like a Maharaja!

What does an airline do when it’s surviving on a Rs 30,000 crore bailout from the government - and has been crippled by a pilots’ strike that has resulted in losses in excess of Rs 180 crore?

Why, if you’re Air India, you party like a Maharaja, of course. And invite your friends in the media to join in an all-expenses paid junket to the US.

The Civil Aviation Ministry haswritten to media organisationsinviting journalists to accompany Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and others to travel to the US to take delivery of the first of the airline’s new Boeing 787 jets.

[caption id=“attachment_312773” align=“alignright” width=“385” caption=“Down-and-out, but still good for a party. PTI”] [/caption]

The ministry’s invitation to media organiations specified that it would “take care” of travel and accommodation expenses of the journalists, The Hindu reports .

An entourage of Air India officials, including Minister Ajit Singh, will fly to Seattle and Charlston for four days from 28 May to secure delivery of the first of the B787 Dreamliners. And, not for the first time, they’ve invited media personnel to join in the junket.

But Ministry officials are evidently blind to the dissonance between an airline that is on life support system, and the image of a planeload of officials and mediapersons heading off - at taxpayers’ expense - at a time when the airline’s services have been grounded by the pilots’ strike, now in its 11th day.

The invitation comes barely two days after Pranab Mukherjee announced that he would unveil “unpopular austerity measures” to rein in runaway spending so as to enable the government to abide by its fiscal deficit targets. But the message evidently hasn’t reached Civil Aviation Ministry officials.

Only on Thursday, data showed that Air India had slipped to fourth place in terms of domestic market share. It was able to fill only seven out of every 10 seats in all of April - the lowest seat factor among all domestic airliners.

But then, what does it matter if India’s national carrier is not flying passengers: it’s always there for a Maharaja-esque party for Ministry officials and media junketeers…