QOTD: Grounded by the fog?

GROUND REALITY: The passenger’s convenience doesn’t fit in a scenario as the profit margins get squeezed then.

        

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Keywords: Citizen Journalists, Passengers

“Being Indian’s second largest airline, we are absolutely committed to providing customers excellent service. We have been working for the past six-months preparing for the fog. We made arrangements to meet all sorts of contingencies,” Warwick Brady said.

“We are going through this phase when we are faced with severe disruptions. Our management team has been working very hard. We had over 180 passengers in Allahbad that we actually provided hotel rooms because the flights were cancelled. When visibility goes below 50 meters, even the best systems in the world are not of to help to get a timely landing and take off,” he added.

Nobody is debating the fact that when fog brings down visibility to poor levels, there is nothing that even the best systems in the world can do. But what about giving regular information to those who are traveling? When it comes to timely communication, even the big airline companies fail to provide any.

“We SMS all the passengers about their flight changes. But this time due to the New Year occasion, even the service providers were faced with congestion in the network. The SMS might have been delayed due to that. We have our 24-hours call centre that provides travelers with timely information. We provide unlimited cookies and coffee at the airport,” said Warwick Brady.

On being asked if he is satisfied with all that the airline has been doing for the passengers, Brady admitted that the airline still needs advanced systems to cope with the problem in a better way.

“We apologise for the inconvenience that has been caused to the passengers. I would like to tell people that we are trying our level best to improve the passenger experience and lessen the disruption to the passengers and make sure they reach their destination with the least amount of disruption.”

No matter what the airline officials say, ground reality remained discomfortingly for the passengers stranded in the cold weather at the airports.

“We don’t blame the airline companies because it’s all due to bad weather. But they should at least provide heaters or may be blankets for passengers who have to spend the night at the airport in this cold,” said one passenger at the Delhi Airport.

SMS Poll Result: Is the indifference of airline authorities the real reason for chaos at airports?

78 per cent of the viewers agreed that it is indeed the indifferent attitude of the airlines staff that attributes to a larger share of the problem than just the natural reasons.

22 per cent did not agree