The Hindu Business Line : Testing times in the air

What's important to the successful functioning of an airline is, people training and fair terms of employment. And for that you don't need to privatise, you just need to give the public sector a chance.

Privatisation of domestic airlines in India is often quoted as a big success story favouring similar efforts across the board, especially in aviation. The assumption is that if it worked with airlines, then it would work with all other aspects of aviation.

But are private airlines really able to do better because of privatisation, and if so, privatisation of what?

Private and public sector airlines are stuck with the same aircraft manufacturers, as well as maintenance parameters. Choosing between Boeing and Airbus, or CRJ and Bombardier, is a bit like trying to figure out the great difference between Tweedle-dee-dee and Teedle-dee-dum! (Though it must be mentioned here that with economy class passenger seating comfort and cabin baggage space being the main criterions, for short range flights, the A-320 beats the B-737 any day, and for long range flights, the B-777 scores way above the A-340, and so Air India seems to have got it all wrong again). Aircraft interiors and seat pitch aside, nothing has changed there.

Air Sahara and Jet Airways have a few really ancient, noisy and rattling aircraft too, which compete well with the Alliance Air Boeing 737-200 venerables in terms of age as well as despatch unreliability. Common users' services, such as airports, Air Traffic Control, safety/fire-fighting, arrival/departure halls, check-in counters, everything is the same, regardless. As a matter of fact, the private airlines get the lousier locations and the more distant bays. Certain services, such as apron control, security and safety, are moving back into the domain of Government control in the most privatised of countries, such as the US. Which is how it should be, considering the vast improvement in airport security in India after they've brought in the CISF, an all-India force. How would you like it if fire services at airports were privatised?

Computerisation and the consequent benefits of technology are on par, private or public sector. As a matter of fact, while Indian Airlines (IA) and Air Sahara have provided Internet ticketing for over a year now, Jet Airways is yet to do so. And this, in a day and age where the much-maligned Indian Railways set the benchmark for Internet ticketing, worldwide, with online sales reaching almost Rs 1 crore a day. There is no evidence that adoption of a technology for the benefit of a customer is any better or worse in the private or public sector.

Onboard catering, cleaning, sanitation, engineering, maintenance, adhering to government/DGCA regulations and scheduling, depends on various factors common to most airlines. But that big bug, IA planes waiting for VVIPs, has now spread to the private players too.

So what's left?

Well, the biggest benefit of privatisation of aviation has been cost to customer. But that really came about specifically and only after Air Sahara put the cat amongst the contented pigeons about two years ago. Remember all the private players now gone, brands such as East-West, Damania, Modiluft, NEPC-Skyline, Continental, who simply followed the prices set by IA?

It doesn't require an expensive consultant to tell us that what's left is people training, fair employment terms and leaving people to do their jobs in accordance with norms. And for that you don't need to privatise. You just need to give the public sector a chance. If you do that, it can perform as efficiently as any private sector, with far greater social responsibility.

Red alert!

There is a security guideline, apparently, that once you have had your boarding pass issued you cannot leave the terminal building. So, if you show your boarding pass at the entry/exit gate and ask to be let out for a smoke or walk, then the CISF officer on duty will not let you out. Fair enough, the reasons for this are apparently to prevent people from checking in on behalf of others, or to leave the terminal after checking their baggage in.

This rule can be by-passed at smaller airports, where everybody knows everybody anyway.

However, at airports like Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai, this rule is followed strictly for bona-fide passengers. But you can leave after checking in by walking confidently towards the VIP entrance near the Airport Manager's office, and exit the building from there. Then walk around the terminal building, and smartly walk in again on the strength of the same boarding pass, which prevented you from leaving! This correspondent does this regularly at Delhi, when a flight is delayed and a smoke or a simple observation trip is called for. Last week, it was Chennai's turn, and with a boarding pass pre-issued at Bangalore earlier in the morning for a late-flight Chennai to Delhi, it was a great reason for the Hindi-speaking CISF officers on duty at the bona-fide entry gate to refuse permission to exit, and smile broadly whenever I re-appeared from outside to re-enter.

What a shame!

Strange are the ways aviation security is interpreted, and not just in India. Listen to the list of don'ts: Can't carry pickles, pepper, round fruit or sealed bottles of water, but you can get as much of it served to you with the meal. Can't carry torches or batteries, but you can reach into the safety equipment or cabin crew bags stored at the rear and help yourself to any of these. Can't use cell phones once on board because they may impact the computers in the cockpit, but all sorts of walkie-talkies and cell-phones used by ground staff are allowed.

And most of all, we can't carry nail clippers or small knives/scissors, but the nice elderly lady will not be stopped from continuing with her knitting!

Oh, for some reassurance

Anxiety amongst passengers for information from the flight deck seems to be on the increase, especially after 9/11. Delayed departures after entering aircraft, and before or after closing doors, with or without substantial activity outside and inside, sudden warnings to fasten seat belts, sudden and perceptible changes in engine sounds as well as changes in altitude, not switching off engines after landing and hanging around on taxiways or bays and circling in holding patterns are events that add to the already stressed environment inside an aircraft.

Generalising is not very accurate, but, by and large, cockpit crews from Far Eastern countries tend to be quite chatty. Europeans provide precise information, with straight-faced humour. American pilots are into accuracy with friendliness, and often go into information overdose. Very often, one of the audio channels is set to the ATC-cockpit frequencies.

But what about our very own Indian pilots? They must be either really busy in the cockpit all the time, giving the autopilot an inferiority complex, or they are simply unaware of how a few words from them to the passengers every now and then would ease the stress involved for many passengers in taking a flight. A few notable exceptions aside, the rest go through the same dull drone on outside temperature, cruising altitude, standard warning on wearing seatbelts and sometimes a reference to the cabin crew. Nothing else. Your airplane could bounce up and down in the worst of turbulence, and instead of a reassuring voice from the cockpit all we get a terse announcement.

Unlike earlier, more aviation passengers know that the avionics and autopilots on board a modern airplane can handle emergencies in the air better than the human at the helm.

So what is the real reason, then for the pilot's scant interaction with the passengers? No wonder we, as Indian passengers, always seem to be in a hurry to leave the aircraft.

Picture by Kamal Narang

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Touch wood

Not just aesthetics

The sky is the limit

Testing times in the air

Health awareness at a click

The cosmopolitan manager

Oh, for that hearty laugh!

The hills go on forever

A walk in the clouds

The music of life