The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a show-cause notice to Air India following an incident where an 80-year-old man collapsed and died at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport’s immigration counter. The airline has been given seven days to respond.
The passenger, arriving from New York, had booked Air India’s wheelchair service but could not use it due to high demand at the airport, according to a statement from the airline. The elderly man, an Indian-origin US passport holder, opted to walk 1.5 km to the terminal from the aircraft instead of waiting for a wheelchair.
According to Civil Aviation Requirement, airlines are obliged to provide assistance to individuals with disabilities or reduced mobility. But why aren’t airlines able to arrange for adequate number of wheelchairs required?
A wheelchair shortage as a potential cause of a chain of events leading to a lost life is hard to accept in one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world. Even if Air India was forced to ration wheelchairs due to a shortage, why an 80-year-old wasn’t found eligible for one is even tougher to understand. Surely, the Tatas-owned Air India’s sister company, TCS, a tech giant, can help it with data analytics to prioritize passengers for wheelchair allocation.
TCS works with some of the world’s largest airlines, including Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways. It also helps the Indian government manage passport services and has been instrumental in drastic reduction in the time taken for issuance of passports, as a Mint Snapview has written earlier.
Globally, airports and airlines are rated on service standards by organizations like Skytrax and Airport Council International, based on passenger experience surveys. Unlike the quarterly surveys typical in many countries, places like Singapore conduct daily surveys. Little wonder then that Singapore Airlines, that jointly owns Air India with the Tatas, has been voted the World’s Best Airline five times in the 23-year history of the awards. Why Singapore Airlines’ best practices aren’t making it to Air India’s passenger handling manual remains both a mystery and frustrating for travellers.
Airports and airlines generate copious amounts of data. Many countries use this data to improve air travel service standards, including details on check-in and security wait times, aerobridge usage, baggage delivery times, and wheelchair requirements per flight. In India, leveraging such data to improve service standards requires a shift in mindset to prioritize passenger services.
Such data ought to be used for improving services standards in India too. Airlines can do this without requiring and statutory approvals, as the data is with them. But this requires a mindset change wherein passenger service standards are accorded high priority.
India is nearly a duopoly in which two large airline groups, IndiGo and Air India-Vistara, control most of the market share, and feel little pressure to improve service standards, given passengers are nearly at their mercy, with few alternatives.
The culture of preferential access for high-profile individuals and policy makers who bypass regular procedures, creates a gap between real passenger experience and decision-making. If these individuals were to experience the standard processes, they might advocate for better service quality standards.
That apart, a significant issue in India is the lack of a legally binding consumer charter for air travellers, which would guarantee their rights as ticket purchasers— a standard practice in many other countries. Currently, buying an airline ticket in India does not come with assured rights. Simply possessing a ticket does not ensure that the traveller will reach their destination by air; in the event of significant delays, airlines may opt to transport passengers by taxi instead. Unlike in some countries, there is also no legal mandate in India that obliges airlines to offer compensation to passengers for such delays or for flight cancellations.
