The Curious Case of Indigo Airlines

 Ok, not sure where this will go, but the outrage is palpable. And warranted. Next to the Indian Railways, Indigo airlines probably ferries the most people around India as a single entity- just a guess.

And guess what? They don't have enough pilots. They are not owned by the government, so there's no hiring freeze. And they have been growing by choice, expanding the number of flights (and planes) like crazy. 

But pilots? Not really. Incredible? Maybe. But who will bell the cat, as they keep saying.

Well, if you are in deep slumber or sleep-walking with blinders on the rest of the time, you need a wake-up call. 

So, after boasting about how they are so wonderful, caring and customer-friendly, a Laxmi Bomb ( Diwali cracker) went off, and their Utopian world came apart in one fell swoop. Around 1000 flights were cancelled in a day, for 'operational' reasons. Someone please do a brain operation on their top management. 

Similar disasters are waiting to happen in the over-digitised world, according to me, a sceptic. Let's see..

Monopoly Madness - Airline Industry

 If you are a near-monopoly, you care less and less about the customer. The govt. is usually a monopoly, and we know how it 'serves' its customers. But this one is about Indigo, which has reached its nadir with a fiasco so bad, it has nowhere to hide.

For one which micromanages passenger movements and makes them stand in line for 20-25 minutes just to board a flight, to one which cannot estimate its own pilot requirements! What a Fall, as Mark Antony would have said.

Short term solutions are OK, but in the long run, a couple of viable alternatives have to emerge, or else trains will become the preferred mode of moving around.

Also a severe penalty for this nonsensical situation is needed, to compensate for the disruptions in many lives.. maybe a fare cap!

Of Flights and Other Diversions

This one if you have not guessed it already, is about diversionary tactics as applied to flights. I was sitting in an Indigo flight with some colleagues, headed from Nagpur to Delhi. We got a wee bit apprehensive when the pilot announced at take-off that there was dense fog in Delhi. After hovering around about 50 minutes above the dense fog, good sense prevailed. You don't burn fuel if you park yourself somewhere. Fortunately, we did not indulge in the car version of fuel-saving, switching the ignition off. We just landed in Jaipur, with a grand view of the unfogged landscape there.

Fortunately, some colleagues had bought Orange barfi at Nagpur, so we had something to chew on while we awaited communication from our masters at the ATC. The mood was one of a picnic, barring a few people who were either missing connecting flights or were being cursed by bosses. Eventually, the air was cleared over Delhi, but not before the lovely air hostesses had been harassed by hungry passengers into selling their entire stock of edibles (loosely used here) and then parted with limited amounts of complimentary snacks (why limited, no idea). Anyway, they handled the situation quite well.

The saga taught us that just like trains, if you are headed into foggy places, plan for a wasted day in and around the fog times. Delhi retains the title of Fog Capital of India.

A line from an old movie came to mind...Bambai se gai Dilli, Dilli se gayi Patna , phir bhi na mila sajna..