MUMBAI, February 6: The Air-India (A-I) is planning to hire independent charter services to operate special Haj flights to Jeddah, to avoid disruption of its flight schedules.According to A-I director, public relations, Jitendra Bhargava, Air-India has already floated global tenders and the aircraft will be chartered before the commencement of the Haj season from April, 1998."We had to resort to charter services as deployment of Air-India's aircraft in the past has resulted in upsetting our schedules for almost three to four months," Bhargava pointed out.The airline has guaranteed uninterrupted flight schedules and punctuality during its three time-table periods from winter 1996, summer 1997, and winter 1998, up to March 31, 1999. However, this schedule integrity guarantee had been threatened by the ensuing Haj season from April-June 1998, when about four to six aircraft out of Air-India's fleet of 26, were expected to be engaged to ferry about 65,000 Haj pilgrims to Jeddah and back.The Hajflights, which are subsidised by the government, costs Air-India almost Rs 60 crore every year. Only about 50 per cent of the cost is recovered from the pilgrims. The flights operated for the Haj trips depart from various airports in India with the pilgrims, and return empty from Jeddah. They make an empty trip again to Jeddah to get the pilgrims back after the Haj. A-I is currently going through a severe financial crunch, when losses have shot up to almost Rs 675 crore in the last 30-month period and is in the process of taking drastic revival measures and maintaining punctuality of flight schedules is one of its first priorities.The airline is also planning a systematic rejuvenation of its assets by selling off older aircraft and replacing them with new ones. While two of its 747-200s have already been sold, two more are up for sale. These are planned to be replaced by a Boeing 747-400, and three A-310s, for which a proposals have been revived and approved by the board in principle.
