Enterprise Of Epic Tragedy

My connection with the DrukAir dates back to the very start of its birth in 1981. I have the honor of having contributed to its graduation - from a tottering fledgling to a full-grown swashbuckler with international reach and spread. Even before the airline started its commercial operations, at the request of its first Calcutta-based Regional Director P S Joseph, I volunteered to fly, multiple times, their first aircraft on its many dangerously unsafe test flights between Paro and Calcutta. I even got my personal cook and my office peon and the gatekeeper to ride the aircraft - to make up the load - in order that the airline may test the airplane’s carrying capacity, and maneuverability, under diverse weather conditions and emergency situations. Much later, when the company started their commercial operations in 1983, I was among the most frequent flyers - so often that Christopher Francis, one of the earliest officers of the DrukAir declared me CIP - Commercially Important Person.

A national liability

I never thought that I would live to see the day when the state would use the same airline company as an apparatus to cause pain and grief to the very people and institutions that it was created to complement and assist. Few would have any idea of the pains and tribulations the creator of the airline - His Majesty the IVth Druk Gyalpo - went through before he was able to establish the National Flag Carrier.

I can truly commiserate with the DrukAir - if they are unable to make profit from their operations. No one can deny that they are faced with insurmountable challenges posed by nature, including the fact that achieving economies of scale is near impossible given the realities of our smallness. No sensible person with any brain can fail to accept that there are certain challenges that are beyond human competence to surmount.

I keep repeating over and over that the DrukAir was not created as an enterprise of profit. But the managers at the DHI simply cannot get the message. Sadly, that is the peril of entrusting the affairs of corporations in the hands of bureaucrats with no corporate culture or training, let alone business acumen.

DrukAir is a national institution behind which thousands of millions of public money has been spent. The least it can do is try and work towards serving the interest of the industry and the people in whose service it was created. Sadly today there does not seem to be a single person in this country with the wherewithal to see the destruction the airline is causing the people of Bhutan.

I wonder if the DrukAir is generating enough business - I repeat business, not profit - to enable it to make its monthly loan installments and the annual insurance premium on their aircrafts?

If the DrukAir is making claims that it is making profit from its operations, it has got to be at the cost of others. It should not be acceptable that for the profit of one institution, hundred others are forced to suffer. If this has been the case, clearly they are a burden to the state and the people of Bhutan.

The people of Bhutan do not need any further proof that the DrukAir is instrumental in large-scale diversion of business to others across the border, even while their own brethren are suffering, for want of opportunities. If that were not enough, it is also apparent that they have directly contributed to the drastic fall in the inflow of hundreds of millions of foreign exchange. And yet, they remain adamantly blind to the folly of their misadventures.

Look at the images of the following hotels that are among our shiniest and brightest - behold the look of gloom and darkness they wear today. Every time I pass by these hotels - my heart bleeds because they should not be looking so forlorn and gloomy. Bhutan is touted as a preferred and prize-winning destination for tourism. If that were true - these bastions of tourism should be shimmering and sparkling like a trillion stars in the night sky. Tens of thousands of tourists should be jostling for space and accommodation.

Ariya Hotel

Dorji Elementts

dusitD2 Yarkay Thimphu

Hotel Druk

Hotel Tashi Yoedling

Hotel Thimphu Towers

Le Meridien Thimphu

Norkhil Boutique Hotel & Spa

Pemako Thimphu

ThePema by Realm

Thimphu DeLuxe Hotel

The above images were shot during late evening to show the occupancy status of each of the hotels. They were shot between 23rd to 25th July, 2023; 07:12PM to 08:53PM. There were some hotels where not even one room was lit up - in difference to the sentiments of the property owners, I choose not to show them here.

From what I hear, the government is yet again contemplating another deferment of repayment of outstanding loans. That is so terribly unfair to the people of Bhutan - such a move will actually aggravate the problem even further - not solve it. Over time such mindless acts will be the cause of the collapse of the financial institutions. When that happens, it will not be the financial institutions - but the common men in the street who will lose their life’s savings.

The day may not be long in coming when the financial institutions may be left with no other choice - than to write off all the outstanding loans - and claim their dues from the Royal Government of Bhutan and the DHI/DrukAir - because they willfully and forcibly engineered the ongoing disaster prevailing in the country!