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More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

The Tatas have had rotten luck with Air India

N Chandrasekaran’s exit announcement has left many people at Air India feeling insecure about the future, the last thing the airline needs at the moment.

The general view is that the Tatas have made a hash of Air India. But it’s not a view I accept. Yes, there may or may not have been hash in the system of the commander piloting the flight from Phuket, where cannabis is legal and available on every street corner, but I am not sure we can treat that as a metaphor for the airline itself.

I speak as someone who takes at least a hundred flights on Air India every year (out of choice) and, from my perspective as a passenger, I have seen how much better the airline has got over the past few years.

While mine is not the conventional view, if you look at the complaints on social media, you will notice that there are fewer passenger complaints about Air India’s in-flight service, the quality of its food, delays and cancellations, or ground handling at most (though by no means all) airports.

The complaints that we hear most often now are about the condition of some of the long-haul aircraft. These are justified: defective seats have been sold to passengers; the in-flight entertainment system often does not work, tray tables can be wonky, and so on.

I know that Air India has tried to replace or refurbish those aircraft but has been stymied by delays in aircraft deliveries and a backlog at companies that make airline seats. But honestly, if a passenger has paid something like a lakh of rupees (and these days, much more), it’s not his or her problem that an airline has excuses for not having been able to add new planes to the fleet or buy new seats. Take a parallel: if you go to a Taj hotel (also Tata-owned) and find that the bed in your room collapses or that the bathroom sink is brown from years of wear and tear, you will not be satisfied if they explain that they have had difficulty refurbishing or maintaining the room.

That’s pretty much how passengers feel about the older Air India planes. It’s been long enough since the Tatas took over, they say. Surely they could have fixed all this by now?

It’s a valid point, but........

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