Airlines harakiri

All 6 passengers onboard Indigo flight from Bangalore to Chennai were deboarded yesterday, as there were too few passengers on the aircraft. The flight was cancelled. While this is an unfair trade practice, question is why was boarding on the aircraft done at all when they already knew they had 6 passengers ? Were they expecting last minute passenger bookings like we see on buses ? The behaviour of Indigo thereafter also is deficient in service and courtesy.

Eversince the no-fly penalty for passengers was implemented, Indigo staff have become much more arrogant and combative than they already were. Why DGCA did not prescribe counter penalties on the airline for behavioural and service issues is anybody's guess. In a bid to maintain time scedules, I have personally experienced being literally pestered , threatened with counter/ gate-closure, continuous announcements and paging, then herded in the aircraft. The aircraft flew out a good 30 minutes before schedule and landed atleast 30 minutes before schedule. DGCA, the ministry nor Indigo took any action on my complaint. Many times it is inconvenient to fly out or land early for many travellers. Indigo also flouts the government rules on "not more than Rs.2500, " for a ticket wherein flying time is less than an hour, by simply scheduling the flight as one of 1 hour 5 minutes. The actual flight takes hardly 25 minutes. Why does the DGCA allow this? Why not link the concessional fare to flying distance instead of flying time ? Where ever privatisation has occured, the consumer has been fleeced and trampled upon. See private banks and insurance. Wonder how the railways will behave, if privatised.

There is yet another trick airlines use. They schedule number of flights at short intervals between same pair of airports on the same day. On the day of actual flight, all bookings are clubbed into one flight, leaving the other flights cancelled. Customer is kept guessing which flight will go and which will not, till the last day. DGCA does not seem to know of this trick yet like they dont know the other violations.

Some enlightened persons may defend that the airlines are there to make profit. Sure, but not by following a restrictive trade practice. Profit has to come from fair business, not harakiri. The customer followed all rules, and paid what was demanded, without bargaining. . He should get what he paid for, irrespective of any unreasonable business terms he was made to agree to while booking. All such unfair terms are challengeable. But that the government has to see and regulate suo moto, not the public. more