Strike, and then called off – Private airlines
In India, private airlines have a tough field. They have to pay high rates for their fuel (ATF costs in India are higher than most places in the world), the conversion to new airports run by private operators are loading user convenience charges that passengers do not like to pay, and it is a cut-throat business with high fixed charges and a variable market that has been severely affected by the economic slow-down.
So, most private airlines are in the red, owing money to fuel companies, to airports, to their debtors, and they do not see a solution in sight. The Government in the past has not provided them any solution in the form of lower taxes on ATF, or any kind of monetary hand-out.
Eventually, the Federation of Indian Airlines, comprising of 5 of the private airlines called for something unprecedented, a one day strike on August 18th where they would stop all operations, and refund all tickets. This was primarily meant as a pressure tactic, and they must have got bold after seeing Anil Ambani take on the Government and not suffer any apparent problems. However, the Government response was swift and harsh. The Government threatened to take strict action, including reviewing their licenses.
Categories: Airline, Alliance, Competition, Finance, Fuel Tags: Airline, Bailout, Business, Fuel, Government, India
Air India overbooks – carried more passengers than capacity
Airlines frequently overbook, given that there is always a number of people who will cancel, and hence there is a mathematics related to the number of people who overbook. Sometimes airlines land up in a situation whereby they find that this mathematics goes awry, and they find that there are more passengers than seats available. In such cases, the airline has to placate irate passengers, and decide who can go and who needs to be refused. Such cases typically cause a lot of unhappiness. However, it is not accepted that an airline boards more passengers than there are seats available. Even in these bad economic times, it is unacceptable to have more passengers on board than there are seats, given that these are paying passengers who have a right to proper treatment. Modern airlines have automated systems whereby boarding passes are issued which prevents extra passengers from getting loaded. However, if the airline wishes to violate such conditions, there is very little that can be done.
Further, after the terrorist incidents, the cockpits of planes are now high security zones where passengers are no longer allowed. So, if there is a case when a passenger is allowed inside the cockpit, that is against all security norms and needs to be thoroughly investigated.
Categories: Accountable, Airline, India, Investigation Tags: Airline, India, Investigation, Safety
Consumer: Airlines to show exact total fare to passengers
For a long time now, passengers have struggled to figure out the exact fare that airlines was asking from them. In the initial days of offers by low budget carriers, the airline would offer a starting fare of Rs. 1, and there were a number of passengers who were dumb-founded by the fact that this fare of Re. 1 was actually not 1, but there were additional taxes, something which could take the fare into the high hundreds or even upto a thousand. Passengers continued to struggle with this situation for a long time, and at that time, one really did not see the regulator or authorities do something about this. There were other problems with these fares such as very poor cancellation processes (some airlines refused to refund money if the ticket was cancelled, instead offering a 6 month coupon).
And then came the time of the high fuel rates, in which the struggling airlines had to pass the high fuel charges to their passengers, but were loath to do in a manner that seemed like increasing fares. So they removed all low fare offers, but did not change the base price of the ticket, instead putting in a fuel surcharge (that was pretty substantial) and which most passengers understood to be a part of Government taxes, since the surcharge was grouped along with taxes. It took another directive from the regulator to modify this practice, but it was mainly removed once the fuel charges came down (even though it took some time after the fuel rates declined for these ticket rates to come down).
Categories: Airline, Consumer, Convenience, Policy Tags: Airline, Consumer, Fare, Passengers, Regulator
