When I joined Air Mauritius (MK), I was pleasantly surprised to see the warmth with which I was welcomed.
Some of the Mauritians had heard of me from my days in AI when I served on the MK Board. For example, Suresh Seegobin the Commercial Director, was AI’s Senior Sales Representative in my AI days and he and his wife, Renuka, always welcomed Manju and me whenever we visited MRU. We had dinner with them on almost every trip that we made to MRU and these were many. I estimate that I must have visited MRU about 32 times.
Sir Harry Tiruvengadam, the CMD, was also known to me from my AI days and he and his wife (Elahi) were very warm in their approach. Let me relate an incident. Elahi was running a restaurant in MRU and on one of our visits, she called Manju and invited us to dine at this restaurant. She added that we should pack an overnight bag as she wanted us to spend the night at her residence.
On waking up the next morning, I went out for a walk and on my return found the front door locked. When I rang the bell, the door was opened by Harry who looked surprised to see me on his doorstep so early in the morning. When I mentioned that Manju and I had slept at his home, he welcomed me and asked me to join him for breakfast.
Harry and Elahi always held a dinner at their home at the time of the Annual Sales Conference which was usually held in February of each year. All Regional Heads and Country Managers were invited. Suresh and Renuka held another dinner to which selected outstation Heads were invited - we are always included.
What was interesting and intriguing was that Suresh & Renuka were always absent at the CMD’s dinner and similarly, Harry and Elahi were absent at the CD’s dinner. It appeared that their was no love lost between the CMD and the CD and this spilled over to the respective wives. This was confirmed to me by a number of senior Mauritian staff who also indicated that many staff members took advantage of this “rivalry” to their advantage.
Nari Dastur took me aside one day and stated that if I wanted my annual Budget to be approved, the man to cultivate was the CD. Further, I should avoid items requiring Capital Expenditure as the CMD “saw red” whenever he came across large sums for purchase of cars, furniture and office equipment. I soon learnt that if I leased equipment such as Copying or Fax machines, the CD would approve them and the CMD would never notice them. This was the way I replaced my car when it was time to do so.
A few retired members of Air-India’s staff were already serving in Air Mauritius prior to my joining the airline and it is interesting that the remuneration and service conditions of some of them differed quite considerably from each other and from the Mauritians who served in the airline.
The first AI employee who joined MK was H.L. (Lal) Sikka who was deputed to MK way back in the late 1960s. In one of my very early Posts, I had mentioned how Lal got this assignment. I was at that time CM - Planning and was hoping to get back to the Commercial Department but was thwarted in my efforts by the then M.D. who quite bluntly told me that such a move would block any possibility of his “protege” becoming Commercial Director.
He was keen to send me on deputation to MK but Mr. Kooka came to my rescue and Lal Sikka went. He was happy to go and when I joined MK, he told me that it was the best move he ever made. He was a very helpful person during my MK days and I was sorry to learn recently that he had passed away.
La Sikka’s designation was Adviser to the CMD and he was a very close confidant of Harry Tiruvengadum. One of Lal’s major assignments was to recommend where to cut costs and he must have been very effective as Harry spoke very highly of him.
Nari Dastur played a very important role in MK. He was the R.D. - Europe; a region which produced the highest revenue for the airline.
In addition to being responsible for the entire continent, he was also the GSA for Switzerland, Germany, Benelux, Spain and the former Eastern Bloc of the Soviet Union. It was a very interesting and remunerative arrangement for Mr. Dastur. He earned a GSA commission of 3% on all sales within his territory, and was also responsible for the administrative expenses incurred in these countries.
The best part of it was that he had almost complete control over the capacity of all flights operating to/from these countries. The Manager - U.K. was told to concentrate on selling space on LON terminators only. France was instructed to concentrate on PAR flights. The situation of Italy was interesting. Rome was an intermediate point on the Zurich terminator and they had an allocation of seats and were told to fill those and not ask for release of any additional capacity which was left to ZRH to fill.
It so happened that a new Manager was appointed in Rome and on a visit to the airport to see off a flight to MRU, he found two empty pallets and on speaking with his airport manager found that very often, the flight left with one or two empty pallets. His Cargo Sales Manager told him that he had instructions from Mr. Dastur to sell the bulk cargo hold but not touch the pallets. Despite this the new Manager - Italy decided to sell one pallet on every flight and so instructed his Cargo Sales Manager.
This happy situation lasted exactly 6 weeks when ZRH found some cargo and filled all pallets on a flight leaving ROM holding a fully loaded pallet load but no space. On raising the issue with ZRH, he received a telephone call from Mr. Dastur who told him to “lay off” and never try and use the pallet space on any flight. Now, the Manager - Italy happened to be a Mauritian and he raised the issue with the CMD who told him to concentrate on selling passengers only. When he protested, he was promptly transferred to JNB and given a promotion as RD - South Africa, to keep him “happy”.
I am relating this incident to indicate how powerful was Mr. Dastur’s position in MK. After all, Europe produced almost 40% of all the passenger revenue of the airline and what Mr. Dastur wanted, he got. When schedules were being finalized, Europe got “first bite” and only after Mr. Dastur’s needs were satisfied, was the remaining capacity allocated to other routes. It created many anomalies such as lack of immediate connections between the JNB/DUR - MRU flights and flights MRU-SIN and MRU-BOM, but as everyone knew, first priority was given to Europe’s needs and all others came second.
Even more interesting was the fact that Mr. Dastur addressed the CMD as “Harry” and the latter addressed him as “Mr. Dastur”. As a middle level executive at H.O. once remarked to me - Mr. Dastur is the de facto CMD of MK. This, of course, created many jealousies which would surface in the years to come with inevitable results.
In addition to the 3% over-riding commission, Nari Dastur’s emoluments “package” was a secret in the airline and very few persons knew the details.
Ravi Misra joined MK as Manager - U.K. and reported to Nari Dastur. I had great sympathy for Ravi as almost every Mauritian VIP visited the U.K. and the poor man had to cater to their whims and fancies. I use the term Mauritian VIP very loosely, as it included all of the top Management of the airline who made considerable demands on many outstation heads. Ravi was paid a good salary by U.K. standards and in addition, had a fully furnished Company apartment plus a car and chauffeur.
I have mentioned my own remuneration package in an earlier Post, but what was remarkable was that I never received an official appointment letter. The only letter I ever got from Mk was when they appointed me initially on a temporary basis for one year.
Whenever I raised the issue with the Finance Director, his answer was that the Contract was being drawn up. When I mentioned this to the CMD, he questioned “Who signs your checks?” and when I told him that I did based upon his verbal offer to me, he said “Carry on” and this is what I did for my entire career with MK. I did mention this peculiar arrangement to Suresh Seegobin, the C.D. who said that my position in MK was unique and no one else had such a relationship with the CMD.
The other two senior retired AI officials in MK were K.L. Ramchander who was the R.D. - East Asia and T.K.P. Pillai who was Manager - Italy, both of whom had remuneration packages similar to Ravi Misra. In addition, they all had Contracts which stipulated there emoluments and perks.
Ram had joined MK before I did, but T.K.’s appointment was later and I played a small role in it. Nari Dastur was looking for a replacement in Rome and asked me what my views were regarding T.K., whom he had in mind. I replied positively and then called T.K. who, was at that time, working for Naresh Goyal. I told T.K. to expect a call from Nari Dastur and suggested that he accept the offer.
On another subject which is still close to my heart, I see that the Indian news media has reported that the Aviation Minister has now confirmed what was always a well known “secret” - AI has not been paying Invoices submitted by the Indian Airports Authority and the Oil Companies. He has further stated that Air-India’s total liabilities may well exceed Rs. 70,000 crores.
The question that arises is - how is AI allowed to declare an Operating profit when it does not include pending Invoices in its expenses?
I also wonder if there will be any suitor who wants to take over such a debt ridden airline and is the Aviation Minister making a case for the airline to remain in Government hands. Only time will tell. Interestingly, the Minister states that he doubts if there is a “Bakra” who would buy the airline.
