Is Air Travel Becoming Increasingly Inconvenient In India After COVID? 79% Flyers Think So

Flight operations in India, both domestic and international have been restored to pre-pandemic levels, after nearly two years of COVID-induced restrictions.

But if you are a frequent flyer, you may have noticed that flying is not the same as it used to be before.

A glance at the social media handles of airline companies shows that they are flooded with consumer complaints.

Delhi Airport

Flight delays and cancellations, difficulties in mandatory web check-in, forced to pay extra for vacant seats, additional payment for printed boarding pass, missing or misplaced baggage, quality of in-flight services, food on board, overall quality of flight staff... the list goes on.

According to a recent survey by LocalCircles, 79% of the airline passengers believe carriers in India are compromising on passenger comfort and cutting corners as a result of the pandemic.

Reuters

Biggest complaints of flyers against airlines

The survey found that flight delays were the biggest complaint flyers had against the airline companies.

Some 41 per cent of the respondents listed flight delays as their top complaint, followed by In-flight services including meals, and entertainment¡±, which 37% of the flyers highlighted.

28% of passengers said ¡°poor aircraft interiors including seats, entertainment system¡±, was their biggest complaint, while 22% pointed out the ¡°airline staff behavior inside the flight and at airport¡±.

AFP

30% of respondents found ¡°boarding and check-in procedures and baggage-handling¡±, their biggest concern while 28% said it was ¡°timely information sharing".

SpiceJet and IndiGo are the most unsatisfactory

As far as the worst airline is concerned, 28 per cent of the respondents said they were most unsatisfied with SpiceJet, followed by the country¡¯s biggest airline, IndiGo.

On this front, Vistara came out the best airline as only 2 per cent of the respondents said it was the most unsatisfactory carrier in India.

AFP

According to LocalCircles, the survey was conducted among over 15,000 airline passengers located across 274 districts of India.

61% of respondents were men while 39% of respondents were women. 49% of respondents were from tier 1, 34% from tier 2 and 17% of respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

IndoGo remains the market leader in April

Last week, the DGCA had said that around 1.08 crore domestic passengers travelled by air in April, approximately 2 per cent more than 1.06 crore who flew in March.

The passenger load factors -- which means occupancy rates -- were above 78 per cent for all major Indian private carriers in April, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated.

IndiGo -- India's largest carrier -- carried 64.11 lakh passengers in April, a 58.9 per cent share of the domestic market, the DGCA said.

AFP

Go First was in the number two position as it carried 11.09 lakh passengers in April, the aviation regulator mentioned.

SpiceJet flew 10.01 lakh passengers and Air India flew 8.26 lakh passengers in April, according to the data shared by the DGCA.

Vistara and AirAsia India carried 9.04 lakh and 5.92 lakh passengers, respectively, in April, the data showed.

The DGCA data said in April, AirAsia India had the best on-time performance of 94.8 per cent at four metro airports - Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

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