How first-time flyers give wing to Indian aviation

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : State-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI), India’s largest airport operator, followed a set formula of having one Indian toilet for every 10 western ones at its aerodromes. That, however, changed after the onset of the pandemic, as its headquarters in New Delhi received numerous requests from many heads of airports across the country asking for that criterion to be relaxed.

The reason: many people were flying for the first time and unaccustomed to using the less-hygienic western toilet. “Some of the first-time fliers were not comfortable with them and, hence, the toilets needed more cleaning than usual," said an airport official, who did not want to be identified.

But just how many first-time fliers are there each day? With the notable exception of Delhi Airport, which sometimes gathers such data through surveys — this information is not collated by any organization. People are never asked if they’re flying for the first time when they purchase a ticket.

In the absence of solid data, executives in the travel and airline industry have to feel their way through with anecdotal evidence — washroom sanitization is just a tiny part of that evidence. To be sure, nobody is claiming this is solid data; it is just a gauge, like the Hemline Index theory, which posits that skirts become shorter during an economic boom and longer during a recession.

That theory has been derided as being too simplistic, but history has the odd example or two that supports it. “Another notable shift was from passengers representing small and medium enterprises (SME) — most of them have stayed and continue to fly," said one airline executive, explaining why India’s air passenger numbers have surged after the pandemic abated and lockdowns