This New Year Air India Hits A New Low, Goes Full Vegetarian On Domestic Routes & Blames Lack Of Serving Time For Choice

If Indians travelling on international airlines have been complaining about being foisted with vegetarian fare despite choosing otherwise, here is a shocker for them. Starting this New Year's Day, Air India has decided to serve only vegetarian food on its flights clocking between 61 and 90 minutes of flying time.

A circular, dated December 23 and signed by Captain D X Pais, general manager of Air India, addressed to the cabin crew, stated, "It has been decided to provide only Indian vegetarian hot meals in economy class on domestic sector flights with duration between 61 and 90 minutes, from January 1, 2016."

The directive also said that tea and coffee would be off the menu on flights that fly during lunch and dinner time.

The circular marked as 'Must Read' has been issued from the office of the executive director, customer services and is marked to all cabin crew and in-flight service personnel. A crew member pointed out that the flights with 61-90 minutes duration give them a window of 30-40 minutes to serve passengers.

Trying to explain the move, an official said, "During take-off and touch down, there is no scope for any service as the galley equipment has to remain fastened. In the time available for service, it is not possible for us to juggle passenger choices' of meals. As a non-vegetarian can have a vegetarian meal but not the other way round, the decision was logical."

However, the issue is not so simple and the national carrier's move has invariably raised many an eyebrow. "How can passengers not be given a choice? I am surprised by this move. This is startling coming at time there seems to be a visible effort being made by airline to improve its services," observed Rajesh Rateria, a travel agent. In the new pruned menu, flight of less than 60 minutes will have no hot meals but merely vegetarian refreshments.

A screenshot of the memo

Vipul Saxena, a frequent flyer, who already has some unpleasant experiences with the airline that he has officially complained about, is also dismayed. "I was once served just two biscuits and water on a Mumbai-Jamnagar flight, with no tea or coffee. I got a written response from the airline that it will look into the matter, but things had not changed when I took the flight again a few months later," he recounted.

Now, the news of doing away with non-vegetarian meals came to him as a sign of complete apathy on the part of the airline.

"How can the airline discriminate so? It does not take much time to make both available. In the current market of strong competition, this move will only dissuade clientele," he added.

Air India has five categories of flights on its domestic sectors - breakfast from 5.30 am to 9.30 am, hi-tea from 9.30 am to 11.30 am and 3 pm to 6.30 pm, lunch from 12 noon to 2.30 pm, dinner from 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm and supper from 11 pm onwards. "For flights departing at hours outside the above timings, an appropriate meal is uplifted, based on the scheduled time of departure of the flight," a note on the airline website read.

"In the time available for service, it is not possible for us to juggle passengers' choices of meals. As a non-vegetarian can have a vegetarian meal, but not the other way round, the decision was logical," said an official on Behalf of Air India.