May 10, 2006 03:08 PM
3484 Views
(Updated Mar 31, 2007 05:53 PM)
Exact feeling which is making me write this review is - Irritation. Its because of the hypocrisy and diplomacy shown by human mind. When there were only three major Airlines in Indian Sky - Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Air Sahara, how many of Present Fliers could afford an Airline Ticket. Yet, most of these New Fliers will name Air Deccan as Air Dhakkan. They will complain about non-availability of food, cleanliness, crew behavior, punctuality etc. I will put forward my point of view for each of these.
Making fun of Air Deccan - How many Air Deccan Fliers can afford a Jet Airways Ticket. A ticket which you can get at 4,000 from Air Deccan will cost you 10,000 from Jet. If you have such a grudge against Air Deccan. You can always fly with Jet. Nobody is forcing you to fly with Air Deccan.
Non-availability of food - Its very good that Air Deccan does not provide food otherwise people would have strangulated the airline over the quality of food. No domestic flight(in India), is in air for more than 3 hours in normal circumstances. For these 3 hours you are provided with snacks and water from Air Deccan, you can very well buy them for 40-60 Rs, you don't starve. If you wish to have mouth watering delicacies even for those 3 hours, fly by Jet or Sahara, they will gladly provide you that food for around 2000 Rs more.
Cleanliness - I have flown by Jet Airways, Air Deccan, Spice Jet multiple times and all the aircraft were absolutely clean. I never had any problem with any of the flights from any airline. They all maintain some standards and not many of us might know but these standards come from DGCA - Directorate General Civil Aviation which monitors for Quality Standards across all Airlines.
Crew Behavior -I have always found Air Deccan Crew Members helpful, polite, well dressed-up and cheerful. Once Air Deccan flight was delayed due to a Short-Notice DGCA Inspection. Crew Members apologised to all passengers and they also explained the cause of delay.
Punctuality - In Indian skies, most of the delay is not caused by Airlines mis-management of time, its caused by congestion of air-traffic. No particular airline can be blamed for this, its government who should come up with solutions because its the responsibility of AAI, Airport Authority of India. Most of the Airlines are frequently running late these days. Name one, which is not. Few days back, a Jet Airways flight was delayed by 3 hours, reason was - one of the runway at Bombay was not operational, by the time it was operational, some International Flights had to depart and they were given the preference over Domestic Flights. So whom should we blame - Jet Airways, as for me - I will definitely not blame them because they did not had any control on the situation.
People who could afford to fly before with Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara can and still fly with them. Those majority of fliers like mewho could not afford the sky earlier and thanks to low-cost carriers can fly now, complaints the most. These low-cost carriers are giving us value for money, appreciate their efforts and understand their limitations. If you can not, then why don't you fly by Premium Airlines. Nobody is forcing you on anything.
I understand a large number of people might not support me but the truth is that these low-cost carriers have taken us to the sky which most of us could not have afforded most of our lives. We would have been cursing the high cost of flying while travelling through train and wasting multiple days of our precious leaves in the journey.
I myself had some unpleasant experiences with Air Deccan mainly on flight delays but then I also experienced the same with Jet Airways and Air Sahara. Before I stop pressing keys, I would like to say that this is based on my personal experience and I may not be right but this is what I felt and thought to put across on this forum. No offence to anyone, you may have a different opinion and you may be right. I have full respect for your opinion as well.
