November 9: A number of pilots working with Air-India, which is facing a resource crunch, have offered to take a wage cut, triggering off similar offers from other senior officials of the airline.

A five percent voluntary wage cut was offered following a meeting between the management and eight unions in August, where the ``realistic financial health'' of the organisation was presented to them.

The decision of the 14 pilots offering a cut with a letter to the management prompted others to follow suit, with managing director, Michael Mascarenhas, himself taking a cut from October. According to AI sources, the offer for a voluntary cut was made by a representative of one of the unions in the meeting. But there was no official circular by the management seeking such a cut.

The airline board's strategy is aimed at meeting the deficit through enhanced revenues rather than through the earlier course of taking loans to meet the working capital requirements, as was resorted to when a financial review was taken early this year.

The strategy included doing away with discounts,improving load factors, cost-cutting measures, select fare increases and putting in place a revenue driven schedule.

According to sources, steps taken have already started yielding results. For instance, the first four months' losses were Rs 46.5 crore, while losses for August-September were Rs 14 crore.

Mascarenhas, when contacted, declined to make any comment on the wage cut, except to say, ``We are taking necessary steps to improve the financial health without affecting the quality or product of the airline.'' Strangely enough, none of the unions nor any of the top officials made a mention or offered a cut in the ``PLI (product-linked incentive) largesse'' given to them by Brijesh Kumar.

Poonam is Miss India Worldwide

Poonam Chibber was crowned the seventh Miss India Worldwide on her 22nd birthday at a glittering ceremony here last night.

The soft spoken Poonam, draped in red chiffon saree, was crowned the winner by the former Miss India Worldwide Sandhya Chib while Miss Hong Kong Shruti Nambiar was crowned the first runner-up and Miss USA Priya Ayyar declared the second runner-up.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.