Company Outsider: Don't blame duopoly for the poor service and high fares by Indian airlines
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Company Outsider is a weekly newsletter by Sundeep Khanna. Last week’s liquidation orders for Go First appear to be another blow to India's airline passengers. With the options narrowing to Air India, IndiGo and the smaller fleets of a struggling SpiceJet and the newcomer Akasa Air, the spectre of a stifling duopoly by the first two in which fliers are burdened with high fares and poor service looms large.
The failure of Jet’s revival plan and the baffling disappearance of Vistara, India’s best-run airline, further compounds those fears. Nor are these unfounded. Last month, year-end travel became a nightmare as airfares from and to major metros soared as airlines took advantage of the holiday rush to charge double the usual prices.
The sad part was even at such usurious prices, passengers were not guaranteed a smooth flying experience. Glitches are routine with delays and other inconveniences now a routine feature of air travel in the country. Passengers on an IndiGo flight had to remain inside the plane for 30 minutes after it landed because the ground staff needed to facilitate disembarkation went missing.
Elsewhere, passengers on Air India flights have complained about defective seats and entertainment systems. These incidents are now so common, and across airlines, that they barely invite even a proper redressal from them. Most people have laid the blame for this sorry state of affairs on the creeping duopoly in the sector with IndiGo and Air India between them having an 87% share of the market.
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