While civil aviation minister Ananth Kumar courted one controversy after another, Air India (AI) declared itself broke and Indian Airlines (IA) quietly slipped back into the red.

Both the airlines waited in vain the year-round for a financial dole from the Government. Even the Rs 125-crore help promised in the budget to IA did not materialise.

The much-awaited aircraft purchases of the two state-run carriers remained in cold storage even as their repairs and maintenance bills soared. IA paid a staggering repair bill of Rs 283 crore in April-September 1998. AI suffered a Rs 106 crore loss in just five months due to interest payments on loans taken for day-to-day working requirements.

"The question is now of survival of the airline" declaredmanaging director Michael Mascarenhas at a press conference. IA, which managed a Rs 45 crore net profit in the last fiscal, slipped back into the red in the first half of 1998-99.

Towards the year-end, Ananth Kumar, minister of civil aviation, dismissed the joint board of directors of the two airlines (for taking decisions without consulting him !), and announced a disinvestment programme for the two state-run carriers. The Government also said that it plans to search for strategic partners for IA and AI to help put the airlines back on their feet.

Air passengers travelling within the country continued to be unsafe. Foreign airline pilots declared that New Delhi and Mumbai were some of the most unsafe airports in the world. The sohisticated secondary radar system at New Delhi airport did not become operational due to the air traffic controllers (ATCs) refusal to operate the system.

The Government policy on privately-promoted airlines saw some of the worst muddles this year. Despite the policy permittinga 40 per cent foreign ownership (from a non-airline source) in the domestic airline sector, the much-awaited Tata Airline project remained stuck with the FIPB.

The board deferred a decision on the project for four times between May and August. Intense political lobbying by Members of Parliament, tarde unions and rival airlines, won the day.

The Tatas withdrew the project in disgust in September. They also axed the country's first greenfield airport project to be promoted privately at Bangalore, in partnership with Raytheon of USA.