Air India Crisis has been the burning topic in past few months. Analysts are busy probing the possible cause of revenue drift. A new twist occurred in the entire episode when it was revealed that the Ticketing Call Centers of Air India was managed by Interglobe , a company which also owns the competitive air carrier Indigo Airlines.
A probe is on to find out whether Air India lost market share or any revenue by awarding the contract to manage its ticketing call centers to Gurgaon-based InterGlobe.
“How come InterGlobe, the company which runs IndiGo, handles Air India’s ticket reservation call centres? This is a blatant disregard for corporate rules. There is no certainty that anything was going wrong, but to make sure that no doubts remain, the probe was ordered,” an official said.
Aviation minister Ajit Singh has launched a probe into how InterGlobe Technologies (IGT), whose holding company InterGlobe Enterprises owns low-cost carrier Indi-Go , has been running the call centre for Air India.
Sensing conflict of interest, Singh has asked for all documents regarding this deal. Sources hinted at foul play with a rival airline handling AI’s system. “A call centre has access to database of an airline’s passengers, their contact numbers and other details which is invaluable information for business rivals . Could this database have remained secure and not passed on to the competition?” said sources.
According to the official, tenders were issued by Air India in 2010 and the lowest bidder was InterGlobe, which replaced Stracon.
The official also said changes in the information technology (IT) system will be made to replace the old manual system, which is prone to manipulations.
“Some changes have been made already and some more will be implemented.”
Airline sources say IGT had won a three-year contract to run AI’s call centre in mid-2009 . “The issue of IGT running AI’s call centre has always been a sensitive one and the AI vigilance department had conducted an internal inquiry into this, which has possibly been sent to the Central Vigilance Commission. The contract is coming to an end in a couple of months and it has been decided not to extend the same,” said an official. An IndiGo spokesperson said: “IndiGo has nothing to with the AI call centre.”