Air India unions say HS Puri’s ‘airline to shut down if not privatised’ statement could scare flyers

NEW DELHI: Air India unions have told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s statement the airline will have to be shut down if not privatised, could damage the its commercial interests majorly and spark an exodus of the Maharaja’s pilots and engineers.
In a letter to PM Modi, the Aviation Industry Employees’ Guild have said: “ … this statement is highly damaging, uncalled for at this stage and has massive financial implications for Air India, as our passengers will start cancelling their flight bookings and/or prospective passengers refrain from booking seats on Al fights from March 2020 or even before. thereby hurting AI’s revenue earning prospects a big way, especially when Al has been showing good operational results over the last two/three years.”
“Moreover, the statement will demoralise our well trained and experienced employees many of whom including pilots, engineers may quit Al and join other private airlines, thereby causing further distress and possible imminent disruption of AI’s flight operations.