The Hindu Business Line : Whose flight is it anyway?

In the 50th year of Indian Airlines' operations, some serious introspection is required on the question of safety in Indian airspace. And laud Indian Airlines' role in it, despite adversities and old aircraft.

The 50th year of Indian Airlines operations kicks off with a series of advertisements, posters, lucky draws and similar marketing initiatives. Good for us, as long as it adds value for paying customers, of which we wish them many more. One of their revenue customers will also win a Mercedes C Class over the next 50 days.

So how many of us are aware of the simple fact that one of the many reasons behind the evolution of Indian Airlines Corporation (IAC) as it was then named, was to try and bring sanity into maintenance, security and safety, in the aviation industry of then newly independent India?

With a variety of small airlines, often propped and managed by scions of royalty, operating all over the country, the air map in India then included small towns not served since, such as Darbhanga, Kakinada, Cuttack and Mysore. Airstrips left untended after the World War II abounded all over.

To give just one example, even as recently as 1960, a low-altitude buzz over a town like Jamalpur on Eastern Railway was enough to get the Radio Operator from the nearby railway station heading rapidly towards the Monghyr airstrip, chasing cattle off the grass runway as he kicked the barracks open to receive the unscheduled Dakotas that made up the backbone of Indian aviation then.

That many of these aircraft started falling out of the skies due to bad maintenance and short-vision business tactics, is best found out by researching aviation accidents in India during the 1947-1955 era.

That many small aircraft and helicopters keep falling out of Indian skies, even now does not seem to be registering too well with the powers that be. Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Mallya got lucky, and everyone is aware of the prominent and promising Indians who have died in the last few decades due to small aircraft disasters.

In this, the 50th year of Indian Airlines, and concurrent celebrations, it would be indeed very apt if all of us did some serious introspection on the question of safety in Indian airspace.

And lauded Indian Airlines role in it, despite adversities and old aircraft.

Full service, anyone?

That economy class is often referred to, as cattle class or doggie department is well known to those in the travel trade. That "full-service" airlines take it further by actually treating the economy class passengers like bovine herds is also a fact of life. That they don't make it a secret anymore, especially for Indian passengers on flights coming in from the West, is something that is becoming increasingly evident, as the following incidents may reveal:

On a recent Amsterdam-Delhi flight, KLM decided to seat all Economy Class passengers in alphabetical order. By first name. The result was, obviously, chaos. As passengers tried their best, after take-off, to exchange seats so that children could be with parents and wives with husbands, cabin crew apparently stood by and smirked. They then added to the merriment by serving the special meals to the relevant seat numbers, regardless of who was occupying the seat.

On a recent Zurich-Delhi flight, Swiss chose not to announce the Air India code-share flight number onboard, as they are supposed to do. When some passengers in economy raised the point with cabin crew, they were informed that they could surely disembark if they didn't like the idea. At 39,000 ft. Over the Hindu-Kush mountains? And don't even talk about the food on Swiss.

It is fairly obvious that a sort of caste system operates on board airplanes with multiple classes on board, which is fine, you pay a minor fortune, and you get treated well. But not at the cost of the bread and butter economy class passengers who provide the critical mass required to operate a scheduled airline in the first place .

One would have thought that the commercial success of single class airlines, like SouthWest in the US and RyanAir in Europe, where all passengers seem to be treated in a friendly manner, would have raised the bar for the older "full service" airlines. It just doesn't seem so.

Closer home, the Jet Airways ATR, Indian Airlines ATR and Air Sahara Commuter Regional Jet (CRJ) provide single class service. In this correspondent's experience, (flying more non-metro routes on such aircraft rather than the glossier ones on metro shuttles) there is something cosy and warm about the egalitarian spirit and camaraderie on board these planes. Especially with the smaller aircraft, where a 2x2 seating layout is not just fair to everybody, but it just seems to bring out a warmth not palpable on larger airplanes.

Don't believe it? Try a two-hour (or more) single-class flight on Jet Airways' ATR or Sahara's CRJ. Not only do these smaller planes seem to pack more legroom, but you also feel like you are sitting in a private box upstairs, instead of the main auditorium.

And in the worst of monsoon skies, they bounce about as much as the biggest of airplanes.

Hygiene at all costs!

Reader Sajeve Deora wrote in, wanting to know what he could do if the cabin attendant on a domestic flight serving him sported a rather dirty Band-Aid on her finger. To be fair to the airline concerned, which responded, emergency requirements compelled the lady in question to report for duty. But did she have to serve soft drinks and water in open glasses?

For that matter, why do airlines persist in still serving carbonated water poured into open glasses at all, in the first case?

Winners all the way!

Sahara's Bid-n-Win scheme has always fascinated the punting skills one never really gave up after the romance with the fillies and the mares settled down to something more stable.

Over the last year, my long suffering wife and I have acquired suit-pieces, coupons for redemption in a variety of stores, suitcases, crockery, magazine subscriptions, coffee table books, cutlery, electronic gadgets, cassettes and a range of other stuff, usually at a fraction of the marked price. We don't have to go to the store to buy gifts anymore, really.

This is how it works: You are given a catalogue on boarding. A few minutes later the cabin crew distributes these small little bidding coupons, where you fill in your bid price, name, seat/flight number and date. You then hand it over to the cabin crew who proceed to do some sort of rapid magic in the galley in between serving food, beverages and ice-cream.

Magic done, they invariably have to cater to some passengers who fell asleep and forgot to hand over their coupons, or others who tied their bids.

That done, they announce the winners (the number of possible winners varies by aircraft and route/block time). After that they give the bidding coupons and authority letters to the usually delighted winners. Flying other airlines is so staid by comparison. And the product list changes every month.

What's in, what's out?

Boeing-737 versus Airbus-320, goes the great debate for Indian Airlines' future aircraft. Wonder why they don't ask passengers!

With obesity and height being equally important for calculating space required in India as elsewhere, it is as simple as going for the one with the wider and better seats. And that, as anybody will tell you, is where the Airbus-320 wins hands down.

The other factor is hand baggage, which, in India, can mean everything except the kitchen sink... . sometimes that also. There again the Airbus-320 wins.

Picture by S.R. Raghunathan

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