AVIATION BUZZ

MERGER MANTRAS : THE VAYUDOOT STORY & MERGER WITH INDIAN AIRLINES

History has not been kind to airlines in India, whether they were private or government owned, but we will do well to remember the lessons each one of those failures taught us.

In the mid- to late 1970s, Air India operated internationally under its charismatic chairman, Mr.JRD Tata, who was summarily removed in 1978 by Morarji Desai. When Indira Gandhi assumed power in 1980, she brought back JRD, but with only a position on the board of Air India. The other airline, Indian Airlines Corporation in 1980, functioned under the chairmanship of Air Chief Marshall P.C.Lal with Gerry Pais as its Managing Director.

In 1981, the then Congress government led by Mrs. Indira Gandhi wanted to start an outreach to the North East sector, as the political upheaval had just begun in the north eastern states.

After multiple committees and brainstorming, a proposal was drawn up by the then Minister of state for Transport Tourism and Civil Aviation, Mr.Anand Pratap Sharma, to create a third national airline. After much debate, it was decided that the two national carriers, Air India and Indian Airlines, should contribute equally to building this airline. The manpower and equipment were also on loan from both AIC & IAC. It must be stated that there was disquiet amongst the boards of both Air India and Indian airlines, to contribute to what seemed to be an ill-fated venture, however, the government of the day decided it had to win the North East.

“Indian Airlines used to operate a mix of jets and turboprops with a dual fare structure. There was one fare structure for the jet aircraft and another lower one, for the turboprops, except for the eastern sector, where fares were even lower. The IAC jet fleet of Boeing 737s and Caravels was cross-subsidising the turboprop operations.” as per Vayu Defence and aerospace review.

?Vayudoot, or Messenger of the Winds, was born on January 20, 1981, and inaugurated with great fanfare with its first flight to Guwahati on January 26, 1981. The stormy petrel of Indian Airlines, Gerry Pais, was made the part time Chairman in charge of Vayudoot, and given the task of handling the baby airline, which he and his board were against the very idea of.

?Mr.Rashid Jung, the then planning manager of Indian Airlines, wrote in III/1992 Vayu review, “The original imperatives for creating Vayudoot were essentially strategic in nature, with an element of social benefit thrown in for good measure. The north-eastern area of the country, which is mountainous and heavily wooded, lacked satisfactory surface transportation. This lack of transport meant political, social and administrative isolation, as well as negligible or marginal potential for a balanced economic development of the region. In short, the area, as a whole, was likely to be left behind the rest of the country in various fields. Additionally, isolation from the mainstream was impeding the process of psychological integration with the rest of the country”.**

The sleepy little third airline, which began slowly with the Fokkers and Dornier Aircraft, grew from 18 stations in 1983 to almost 100 airports across India by 1990. The catalyst for this explosive growth in Vayudoot was twofold – the appointment of the young executive assistant of Raghu Raj, Air India’s Chairman, Mr.Harsh Vardhan, to become the Managing Director of Vayudoot, and the Billimoria committee report, which suggested that Vayudoot take over the entire Indian Airlines turboprop fleet and all flights on which the load factor was below 50 per day.

?The dynamic and affable Indian Airlines Managing Director, Mr.Gerry Pais continued as Vayudoots Chairman, and Mr.Harsh Vardhan joined the Indian Airlines board as a member. ?From 1985 to the early 1990s, a regional airline called Vayudoot used Dorniers to service 100-odd airports across India. The Dornier-228 made up close to half of Vayudoot’s fleet of 21 aircraft.

?Harsh Vardhan, focused on growth and maintenance and grew the airline at a rapid pace, however, the lack of focused engineering and the over-ambitious expansion stretched the services to breaking point.

As Raj Chengappa of India today states “Eventually flight schedules went haywire, and air safety norms were flouted. Snags were ignored to keep flights running, aircraft were pushed beyond endurance limits and pilots were under pressure to keep flying. The airlines were surviving on a wing and a prayer." The Guwahati air crash In 1988, killing all 34 passengers and crew was the last straw for the beleaguered Vayudoot Safety norms were being flouted left right and centre. In another incident, a Vayudoot pilot at Calcutta airport took the Dornier aircraft to the hangar without permission. He foolishly shut off his engines. The plane, VTEIP, was on a gradient and it began to roll. Since the engines were off, the hydraulic brakes did not work, and the aircraft crashed into a van. #

?After the explosive growth that was causing Vayudoot huge losses, the safety concerns caused grave concerns to the government and the regulators. The mounting losses continued to trouble the beleaguered airline.

?The then Civil Aviation Minister had said in 1991 that there were no plans to merge Vayudoot with Indian Airlines and that they were looking at improving safety and operational dynamics. However, in the same year, a discussion began on THE closure of Vayudoot airlines. The rapidly expanded network of 100 stations had proven unsustainable and was reduced to 48 stations in late 1991, and then it once again focused only on the north-east.

?By 1993, a final decision was taken of dissolution of assets and the merger of Indian Airlines. On 1/4/1997, all the assets and flight operations were transferred to Alliance air.

?The trained manpower of Vayudoot, namely pilots, was mainly transferred to Indian Airlines, though some pilots did join Air India. The Cabin Crew were absorbed in Indian Airlines.

The disputes and litigations then began as the manpower integration became a nightmare both in Indian Airlines and Air India. Vayudoot being a smaller carrier, promotions and growth was much faster than the major national airlines, Air India and Indian Airlines, so persons with much lesser service in the airline industry ended up much senior to their counterparts in Air India.

?Amongst the pilots, the unrest grew due to the direct first officers and senior first officers taken on the basis of their number of flying hours, over the recruits from IGRUA and CPL direct recruits. There were at least three rounds of litigation that went up to the Supreme Court, which caused major heartburn in both carriers. In fact the tremors of the merger of Vayudoot -Indian Airlines continued to affect the airline even up to the subsequent merger of Air India and Indian Airlines.

?# Reference --Courtesy India Today, Raj Chengappa

** Reference - Courtesy Vayu Defence review

The writer Sanjay Lazar, is an Aviation consultant, best-selling author and Harvard Law Professional with 37 years’ experience in aviation, law, public speaking, and leadership . He is available at @lazar1 on Linked-In & @sjlazars on X (formerly Twitter)

His book ‘On Angels’ Wings — Beyond the bombing of Air India 182' is a number 1 #Bestseller available on Amazon.in