June 28, 2013: As the rupee fell to a historic low of Rs.60 against the dollar, the companies in India who trade in dollars have started running for cover. The latest victims being airline companies. As the Indian airline companies try to cut costs, GoAir which has been incurring Rs.30 crore on annual basis because of the fall in exchange rate has come out with some unique moves as part of cost cutting. One of the moves which could raise some eyebrows are cutting down male cabin crews in favor of female cabin crews.
The logic being worked out for this move is that it will help to reduce the fuel burn as the female cabin crew weigh lesser than their male counterparts and thereby reduce operating costs. According to GoAir for every kilogram of weight on board costs the operator Rs.3 per flight hour. Out of the total cabin crew of 330 members in GoAir 50 per cent are males. The company expects to save more than Rs.2.5 crore annually with this move.
Some of the other steps taken to cut cost include reducing the size of inflight magazines and reducing the capacity of potable water tanks to 60 per cent. GoAir will now be doing only single engine taxi to save fuel and the new aircrafts would be installed with sharklets which are wingtip devices. Sharklets would help the operator in reducing fuel by nearly 5 per cent. GoAir has plans to buy nearly 80 aircrafts over the next seven years and hire nearly 2,000 crew members.
