Air Travel Travails

Moneylife Digital Team 30 November 2017

Consumer Interest

The viral video of Indigo Airlines staff manhandling a passenger and pinning him to the ground has triggered a giant stream of jokes and memes about how the Indigo treats its staff. The incident also brought home the fact that disaggregated airline customers are increasingly at the mercy of airlines due to their inability to get together to demand their rights. In the Indigo case, the ill-treatment of the passenger caused outrage and inquiry, only because it was recorded and released on social media. When no such visual documentation is available, the passenger could well be at the mercy of the airline which has been empowered to cause permanent damage by threatening to classify him/her as unruly and be put on a ‘no-fly list’.

A sharp social media message that has found plenty for ‘forwards’ lists how the silence of customers has given airlines the upper hand allowing them to charge for every service (premium-priced food, convenience fee for booking online when it ought to be discounted, seat selection fee, surge pricing, which makes travel on holidays unaffordable, and reduction in free hand baggage and check-in baggage allowance). Since there are only a few airlines which can gang up, competition no longer works. According to social media posts, airlines are coming up with new gimmicks that seem aimed at fattening their bottom-line. For instance, one post says that airlines callously offer no support to passengers stuck in long check-in queues causing them to miss flights; they are then offered the next flight ticket at a steep price difference. We don’t know if this is a deliberate strategy; but the fact is that there is little recourse if you are the victim of such a strategy. The government rarely reacts until public outrage snowballs into a huge controversy. In the Indigo case, the issue has already died down which means that we should not expect any change until a bigger incident causes even more outrage!

Comments

User

Ramesh I

9 years ago

What happened in the recent Indigo incident is a shame, and the post about an airline routinely (deliberately ?) making passengers miss early-morning flights is also a reality. It's a pity the DGCA or Civil Aviation Ministry takes no action against such errant airlines, who seem politically well-connected. In fact, besides TRAI, there's hardly any regulatory authority which functions as per its mandate in India. Consumers are pretty much left to their own devices.

c babu challa

9 years ago

We have so many authorities running on public money like, IAAI, CBI, the Police, Drug Controller, etc. When public is being illtreated, do we need to fend for ourselves for justice. In the present case, IAAI and Civil Aviation ministry should immediately do the needful and provide compensation to the victim and not leave the victim to fight for himself. If this is so, everyday we end up fighting for our own miseries and cannot do any productive work, inspite of having so many authorities. Some of the authorities donot know what they are supposed to do. They just know that they have authority to do what they want and protect the big lords. Yesterday and today Delhi public, especially parking around Hyatt hotel, has been put to great trouble because of the Hindustan Times conclave at Hyatt Hotel. If one news baron wants to publicise his media, why should public suffer. No parking is allowed around Hyatt hotel because of security of PM and ex President of USA. Where do the people park their vehicles. Traffic movement is also affected. the public is the customer of the government. But he has no voice and has to fight everyday to live peacefully. There should be some solution and people should be taken care and allowed to freely do their job for the nation.

shadi katyal

9 years ago

Airlines indirectly have a monopoly and thus they decide how to treat the passengers. There is also no culture of courtesy in our nation and thus staff of airlines feels their power to abuse the customers. The question of any help at ground level never existed in the industry whether in the nation or abroad. Airlines as an industry all over the world has become less customer friendly.In the USA where now wiith few major lines are the one who started this trend by reducing the size of seats, charging for pillow, food and extra luggage and even limiting total kg of checked luggage and got away so presume it has become a
part of the aviation industry.
Why is GOI aviation ministry unable to take any action of what happened to a paying customer?