It is a tragedy (‘No Air about India’, October 11) that government finances are misused and lack of professional management is having a deleterious effect on Air India. On many occassions (when I had no choice but to take an Indian flight) I have found the service to be very poor and the toilets not working (water dripping) and seats broken at few places.
In some cases, I have encountered problems like not getting information when flights are delayed for long hours.
On one occasion when I actually got an answer it was “We have given a bigger aircraft for the flight which is delayed”. The delay of about 4 hours in reaching Delhi is compensated by a larger aircraft! I agree that the airlines are not privatised by the Government because “babus” will no longer be able to enjoy the facilities they get at present, at the cost of taxpayers. However, with regard to upgrading the Business Class to First Class or Economy Class to Business Class, airlines (like Jet Airways) do not have a common policy. I have seen that Jet Airways does not upgrade Business Class to First Class.
So we can give Air India the benefit of doubt for following a non-transparent policy on upgrades.
Golaka C Nath, on e-mail