Vistara: Why flyers face turbulence when aviation sector is growing
Last year, while Air India was sealing the biggest commercial aviation deal in history by ordering 470 jets from Airbus and Boeing, Ladakh MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal delivered a fiery speech in Lok Sabha on exorbitant airfare on the Delhi-Leh route and its fallout on patients and students, among others. One-way fare from Delhi to Leh was persistently above Rs 30,000 in the second week of February last year, according to news reports. Namgyal said fares in the sector touched Rs 80,000 when he checked online.
While India's aviation sector is growing, more and more people are flying, airlines are adding more aircraft and airports are being built even in far corners, flyers are complaining about delays, cancellations, low quality of service and fares jumping to new highs.
Customer dissatisfaction
Three months ago, a survey revealed that customers are highly dissatisfied with services of airlines. Nine of 10 respondents in the survey of about 13,000 air passengers said India's airlines have been «compromising on comfort and cutting corners in the last 24 months». The survey was conducted by community social media platform LocalCircles.
«Since October, LocalCircles has seen a surge in complaints from fliers about excessive fares, cancellation of flights, delayed flights, boarding denied, luggage being damaged or misplaced, steep hike in onboard food prices, changing the boarding gate silently,rude behavior of staff at check-in counters, etc. The complaints have hit a new peak this week as many headed to the airport
