The sacked board had accepted the A F Ferguson report, which recommended a three-year time frame for a merger of IA and AI. The merger was to be achieved in phases, beginning with increased synergy and eventual merger of the various departments. While the board earned the wrath of Ananth Kumar, Civil Aviation Minister, for not informing him of this decision, the ministry is now urgently pursuing the synergy goal. The ten sub-committees will have to submit their recommendations to civil aviation secretary P V Jayakrishna in a week's time.

``The minister does not know his own mind. The decision to set up the sub-committees to increase synergy...is precisely what the board was doing" saidsources in IA.

``The first job of the holding company would have been to identify the areas of enhancing synergy before achieving any merger.''

The sub-committees are for the areas of information technology, ground transfer, flight schedules, fare rationalisation, engineering, advertising and marketing, space accommodation, appointment of GSAs and ground handling.

The sub-committees will report to A P Singh, joint secretary in the ministry of civil aviation. They consist of one member each from IA and AI.

The strategy of greater synergy and merger of IA and AI has remained an elusive goal for the state-run airlines for the past two years. Successive coalition Governments have failed to take any decision on this issue, in spite of a growing trend of airline alliances all over the world.

Kumar has said that a merger of the two airlines does not make sense at this time. The Government is keen to disinvest in the two airlines within a year, and the merger will not be conducive at the moment. AI isheaded for a over Rs 200-crore operating loss in 1998-99, while IA is expected to make a small profit.

Meanwhile, at a meeting of the consultative committee on civil aviation, members Jayanthi Natarajan, Suresh Keswani, M Ramachandran, P C Thomas, V Ravi, Suresh Bagrodia and Mohammed Salim demanded an explanation from minister for the ``surreptitious sacking.'' They wanted to know whether resistance by the board to the 50-seater aircraft deal led to its ouster.

They also demanded an explanation on why a ``mere resolution of the merger'' had led to such a drastic step when the Government could easily over-rule the decision. The minister reserved his answers till the next meeting.