New Delhi: To make the best business out of surge in passengers’ rush post-Covid scenario, about 90% of the air travellers feel that airlines in India have compromised on the passengers’ comforts and resorted to cost-cutting exercise over the past couple of years, states a survey conducted by LocalCircles.
The report of the survey, which was made public recently, is based on the view of about 25,000 air travellers, covering 284 districts across the country. The reports is based on the ‘India Airline Passenger Sentiment Survey 2023’ carried out by LocalCircles.
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“Since October, LocalCircles has witnessed a notable rise in grievances from air travellers, encompassing issues such as exorbitant fares, flight cancellations, delays, denied boarding, mishandled or lost luggage, significant increases in onboard food prices, undisclosed changes in boarding gates, and instances of staff displaying rude behaviour at check-in counters,” the survey report stated.
The passenger have to make the sacrifice their comfort despite massive rise in the number of air travellers. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had estimated that about 372 million people will travel by air in the 2023-24 fiscal, and the figure will be touching around 412 million by the end of 2024-25.
Complaints reached peak during Christmas, New Year holidays
As per the survey report, the complaints from passengers reached its peak during the Christmas and the New year’s day, when a large number of people rushed to airports to travel their festive destinations to celebrate the festivities.
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A large number of passengers during the survey admitted having issues in flying in the past two years. “78% of respondents faced one or more issues when flying in the last 2 years. The first question in the survey focused on understanding the percentage of passengers, who faced one or more issues when flying in the last 2 years. Most of the complaints pertained to boarding, check-in procedures, baggage handling and in-flight services.”
A huge 88% participants of the survey were of the opinion that airlines operating in the country have been compromising on passengers’ comfort and engaging in cost-cutting measures over the past two years.
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The passengers’ complaints for compromise in comforts has gone up to 88% this year against 78% reported last year. Feedback gathered from discussions within the LocalCircles community indicates that a significant number of air travellers still perceive the aviation regulator as largely unaware of the shortcomings in airline customer service that they routinely encounter.
Travellers, who participated in the survey, strongly said that the regulator step in to ensure improved services and behaviour change of the airline staff. “Additionally, there is a call for faster and real-time escalation mechanisms to be made available to passengers,” the survey report noted.
