"Are low cost airlines compromising on the safety of passengers?"
No sir, such cheap budget airlines like Air Deccan,Sahara,etc.will never ever reveal this. For Rs.360/- they will affirm that you can travel from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. It is only when the plane takes off and reaches cruising speed that the Pilot will announce: "sorry gentlemen and ladies,our fuel is just got over,we are just over the Arabian sea,we have lost contact with the ATC(Control Tower),there is no airport in sight for the next 100 miles,sorry we have no food to server either,tea and snacks we have forgotten to take on board,there are no Parachutes,oops,the Landing gear is stuck up....."have a nice flight.....to heaven!
This is your commander of "Lowest Budget Airlines", "sorry we have to do this as we have not received our Salaries for the last 9 months and the Management have asked us to collect which ever way we can. Goodbye and goodluck!"
( Posted: Friday , March 23, 2007 at 14:20 )
Rajesh
I am frequent flyer in Air Deccan. Some times toilets are not clean.The aircraft seat is not vaccumed so it is full of dust. Seat head covers are not changed. You can lower the cost but not in hygeine.
( Posted: Friday , March 23, 2007 at 14:00 )
Ranjit
Air Deccan should follow some ethics in its business. I was booked from Madurai to Chennai to catch a Chennai-Mumbai Jet Airways flight. However, Air Deccan flight from Madurai was delayed which made it impossible to catch the Mumbai flight from Chennai. When I opted to cancel the ticket, I was given only 50% of the fare for no fault of mine. Additionally I had to incur hotel expenses at Madurai and had to travel only next day. Delays can happen to flights, but Air Deccan should not be greedy and make money in unethical manners.
( Posted: Friday , March 23, 2007 at 13:50 )
Ashish Nogaria
Hi, I agree that low cost airlines are not giving basic facilities which include proper information on correct time. Few days ago, I came by Kolkata to Bangalore by Air Deccan and it was late by 4 hours which is expected when you travel by Air Deccan. Low cost air line need to follow some basic service standard like easy information, proper trained staff at call center as well as at airport. CNN-IBN is doing gr8 job by highlighting these issues.
( Posted: Friday , March 23, 2007 at 13:50 )
ashwin
I thank CNN-IBN for bringing consumers plight to light with regards to low cost airlines. I would like to bring to your notice two more areas which are not touched 1: Refunds: It is almost impoossible to get refunds from these airlines I have tried to book my tickets on airdeccan on 28th feb. and no PNR was generated still they charged my card by Rs.9995/- I lodged a complaint and they said there was some problem in payment gateway and you will get it in 7-14 days still nothing has happened . On calling callcenter they say that it is under process and they give a mail ID to write that ID has set up auto reply and whenever I write they say it will take 40 days for process. One more case of mine where I cancelled a ticket on 28/02/2007 they said taht in 2-3 days they will roll back the money but it never happenedon calling after 10 days they say that refund was denied and now thay have booked a complaint and say that it will take 40 days. why shouls a customer wait taht much. My complaint nos are 46124 and 42835.
2: There shold be some commitement on service levels by call centers also the only way to reach them is through call center t, the refund call center only works monday-friday 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. and generally they put you on hold for 1 hour before someone attending you specially for refunds.
( Posted: Friday , March 23, 2007 at 13:05 )
Nikunj
Its good that we are atleast talking about issues of passenger safety, but in a country like India where only a handful of people travel by air, what about people that travel by buses and train? Buses I guess cater to the lagest passengers, I see overloaded buses, overloaded luggage etc. Its time we talk about that as well!
( Posted: Friday , March 23, 2007 at 12:48 )
thomastt
Why blame only the LCCs. They are easy targets. Once when I was travelling on Kingfisher....everything was perfect. Except that the flight attendants were not bothered to check whether people have switched off their mobiles. They happily walked around admiring themselves. Isn't this also endangering security. It was a Mumbai-Jaipur flight. Let's just not target LCC. Compared to this IA and Jet does a good job....
A frequent flyer
( Posted: Friday , March 23, 2007 at 12:48 )
Surya Prakash
This news is shocking. now i am wondering why did i book my flights on airdeccan.
( Posted: Friday , March 23, 2007 at 12:20 )
Shrinath
Low Cost Carriers are doing a great job by enabling the common man to afford air travel but it does appear that they do at times cut corners, thereby compromising air safety norms. There have been far too many instances of flight overbooking and offloading of passengers in the recent past. In one ridiculous instance, grown up children were asked to be accommodated on elders’ laps so that the airline could push through the excess boarding passes issued. Operating cheap flights to a large number of destinations by squeezing a limited number of airplanes to amortize their flying time as much as possible is fraught with risks of bypassing mandatory checks and engineering support. One brief delay because of a technical problem or the weather, and it spreads through the rest of the network, multiplying in impact. Continual delays and cancellations by a budget airline in Europe resulted in suspension of its flight certification by civil aviation authorities; this struck a blow to the ambitious growth plans of the operator. The airplane has come a long way from being a luxury to a mode of travel that is necessary and popular but violating air safety norms and risking precious lives can be disastrous & have an adverse impact on the image of low cost aviation. Airlines should not only honour their contractual obligations of safe transportation but also espouse ‘business models with a conscience’. Issues of steep airport charges, rising costs of aviation fuel, inadequate staffing, limited infrastructure, lack of inter-airline agreements between LCCs and a plethora of associated problems could lead the operators into deep trouble. Regulatory and controlling bodies like DGCA and AAI must be very strict in their role of superintendence of matters concerning air safety; they must sit down with airline operators and impress upon them to perform or perish!
( Posted: Friday , March 23, 2007 at 11:37 )
Pramod Sinha
No outcome will be there from DGCA committee. No benefits for the customer. DGCA will tell the Airline operator about the loopholes and DGCA committee members will become crorepati.
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