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Air-India cracks whip, transfers inefficient officials

According to informed sources, Satya Rao, regional director of the airline in United Kingdom and Europe; Capt S K Sehgal, regional director, South Africa; and Arun Burman regional director, Middle East, have been shifted from their respective positions and asked to report to headquarters in Bombay.

The sources indicated that Satya Rao had been taken to task for non-performance in the UK market where the yield had fallen by 36.7 per cent despite, the presence of a full-fledged general sales agent who has been representing Air-India for the past 10 years.

Air-India's market share in South Africa and West Asia had fallen by 15 and 17 per cent respectively.

Minister for Civil Aviation C M Ibrahim, according to the sources, had asked for an explanation from the management for not adhering to the directions given by him at the regional director's meeting in Bombay in November 1996, wherein he had given explicit instructions that Air-India's regional directors and general sales agents must achieve 25 to 30 per cent growth in their revenue generation programme.

The minister had suggested to the management to make people accountable for non-performance and the present action is indicated to be a directed action seeking accountability.

The recent change in the management appears to be making all-out efforts to achieve growth-oriented results. Similar action is likely to be initiated in the United States and other sectors if people fail to come up to the expectations of the top management of the airline.

In order to boost sales and productivity and make Air-India a better airline, these sources said that the management was working on marketing strategies for the year 1998 to achieve all-round satisfactory results.

UNI