The Bumpy Road of Air Travel: Tales of Turbulence and Frustration!

Old timers are right. The more things change, the more they remain the same! I used to scratch my head upon hearing this one-liner from my dad. However, after reading about many incidents involving delayed/canceled flights and the sheer apathetic and immature behavior on display by the concerned airline staff toward its hapless flyers, I understand what my dad meant!

It still is mind-boggling though. The Aviation industry is not exactly a money spinner. Most folks are aware of the cutthroat competition and the need to keep operational costs down. The major pain points for the Industry are Fuel costs(35-45% of total costs!), Pilot salaries, and high debt levels in a volatile interest rate regime to name a few.

Given this backdrop, one would think that customer service in this Industry would be of all the more importance for the airlines. Imagine my shock when I found out that nothing has changed in the past 3 decades or more! Given various factors like weather, pilot availability, technical issues, etc. it is obvious that there would be x %age of delayed or canceled flights over a particular time period. This issue can be completely planned for! Since the ground staff of airlines still goof up spectacularly in handling such incidents, the following questions come to my mind;

1) Is there a airline specific policy that covers such incidents and the process to be followed in order to ensure passenger satisfaction?

2) Has the Industry regulator laid down the process to be followed in the safety and interest of the passengers in such events?

3) What happened to all the "Emotional intelligence", "customer satisfaction" and other such factors which are splashed on adverts and annual reports of these companies?

Given that most airlines operators in India are largely loss making, one would logically expect a deft and graceful handling of such incidents. The fact that passengers still have to literally 'gang' up on the station manager and ground staff reveals otherwise. What exactly are the airline management thinking? Or have they figured out that passenger satisfaction is not the most important metric when it comes to managing their airlines?