Mumbai: Condemning Indigo Airlines for the manhandling episode of one of its passengers by its ground staff in October, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture headed by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien, on Friday reprimanded the low-cost airline for the incident. In a strongly-worded report presented in Rajya Sabha, the committee recommended institutionalisation of soft skills and functionality training for employees of all airlines.
The incident on October 15 in which Indigo’s ground staff assaulted its Chennai-Delhi flight passenger Rajeev Katyal and physically prevented him from boarding the coach had spurred a huge controversy after a video capturing the fight went viral. Indigo had terminated the staff involved in the incident but received a lot of flak on social media for their apparent handling of the issue.
The committee, while taking into account several incidents of ill-treatment of passengers, discourteous and rude behaviour by both ground staff and cabin crew, took up the Indigo incident. “While narrating some of the incidents of misbehaviour in airlines, especially in Indigo, majority of the members opined that the attitude of airlines staff is very condescending, often uncooperative and on many occasions, downright rude,” said the panel’s 256th report on issues related to improving consumer satisfaction with airlines.
Stating that strict action against such employees does not absolve the airline of its guilt, the committee observed that the problems affecting the airlines were “institutional”. “An institution like Indigo has to develop a consumer-friendly approach in dealing with their passengers. The committee believes that being a leader in market share, Indigo needs to look inward and find out the reasons for the discourteous attitude and rude and indifferent behaviour of their employees. The arrogant behaviour of employees should stop,” the report said.
The committed asserted the need for employees to be given training to effectively manage crisis situations such as delays in take-offs, landing, diversion of flights, and sensitising them to meet the needs of disabled persons.
The committee, which has former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, former UPA ministers Rajeev Shukla, Kumari Selja and actor Shatrughan Sinha on its 31-member panel, also singled out Indigo for problems faced by passengers in getting water and food, especially in low-cost airlines.
06/01/18 Satish Nandgaonkar/Mumbai Mirror
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The incident on October 15 in which Indigo’s ground staff assaulted its Chennai-Delhi flight passenger Rajeev Katyal and physically prevented him from boarding the coach had spurred a huge controversy after a video capturing the fight went viral. Indigo had terminated the staff involved in the incident but received a lot of flak on social media for their apparent handling of the issue.
The committee, while taking into account several incidents of ill-treatment of passengers, discourteous and rude behaviour by both ground staff and cabin crew, took up the Indigo incident. “While narrating some of the incidents of misbehaviour in airlines, especially in Indigo, majority of the members opined that the attitude of airlines staff is very condescending, often uncooperative and on many occasions, downright rude,” said the panel’s 256th report on issues related to improving consumer satisfaction with airlines.
Stating that strict action against such employees does not absolve the airline of its guilt, the committee observed that the problems affecting the airlines were “institutional”. “An institution like Indigo has to develop a consumer-friendly approach in dealing with their passengers. The committee believes that being a leader in market share, Indigo needs to look inward and find out the reasons for the discourteous attitude and rude and indifferent behaviour of their employees. The arrogant behaviour of employees should stop,” the report said.
The committed asserted the need for employees to be given training to effectively manage crisis situations such as delays in take-offs, landing, diversion of flights, and sensitising them to meet the needs of disabled persons.
The committee, which has former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, former UPA ministers Rajeev Shukla, Kumari Selja and actor Shatrughan Sinha on its 31-member panel, also singled out Indigo for problems faced by passengers in getting water and food, especially in low-cost airlines.
06/01/18 Satish Nandgaonkar/Mumbai Mirror
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