Apart from the super rich at Davos, there can be few who stand in unison for a cause right now as the bosses of India’s airlines. IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir have decided that a comedian is a danger to their passengers.
Who knew they valued safety, uprightness, good behaviour, privacy and a bunch of other things that are fast disappearing from public life. Fist bump for your courage of conviction, guys.
No doubt, Kunal Kamra should not have confronted the television anchor on board the IndiGo flight. Kamra’s boorishness made the man who makes a living from boorishness smell like roses.
Condemnable as the behaviour was, did Kamra deserve the ban? Together, these four airlines represent 86 percent of the aviation market in India. A scrum of experts has weighed in about how the airlines did not follow the rulebook on imposing such bans.
So I will not venture there. What I’d like is tell readers what the flying ban on Kamra reveals about Indian aviation.
There was no —there is still no — official communication from the aviation ministry or the regulator DGCA about keeping Kamra off planes in India.
But the four airlines jumped at the chance of putting Kamra in a no-fly list. What triggered this quick-gun response? A tweet by the aviation minister “advising” them to do so.
The head of DGCA, which is usually unmoved by most aviation incidents, agreed with the minister through a clarification to a media report. Just when some rare praise was coming the institution’s way.
Take a look at the airlines that have joined issue with IndiGo. No surprises about Air India. The government owns the airline.
SpiceJet’s action, despite the well-known political affinity of its boss Ajay Singh, is not. SpiceJet and IndiGo are the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton of Indian aviation. In a nastier way.
I am not just referring to just pricing strategy or network planning here. They each try to undermine the other through gossip, vitriol and intense lobbying.
Ergo, SpiceJet’s expression of solidarity with IndiGo is no different from Trump singing praises of Hillary.
GoAir is not the “I stand with you, bro” type either. But its action too should not raise eyebrows given its gingerly steps in aviation, careful with expansion, cautious about ruffling feathers, least of all belonging to the mandarins at the aviation ministry.
That is the funny thing about the unanimity of these four airlines. They are actually united by their singular dependence on the government for survival.
No airline in India can stay aloft by getting into the bad books of authorities. Schedules, slots, traffic rights …there is feast of requirements that need clearance from the government.
31/01/20 Binoy Prabhakar/CNBCTV18.com
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Who knew they valued safety, uprightness, good behaviour, privacy and a bunch of other things that are fast disappearing from public life. Fist bump for your courage of conviction, guys.
No doubt, Kunal Kamra should not have confronted the television anchor on board the IndiGo flight. Kamra’s boorishness made the man who makes a living from boorishness smell like roses.
Condemnable as the behaviour was, did Kamra deserve the ban? Together, these four airlines represent 86 percent of the aviation market in India. A scrum of experts has weighed in about how the airlines did not follow the rulebook on imposing such bans.
So I will not venture there. What I’d like is tell readers what the flying ban on Kamra reveals about Indian aviation.
There was no —there is still no — official communication from the aviation ministry or the regulator DGCA about keeping Kamra off planes in India.
But the four airlines jumped at the chance of putting Kamra in a no-fly list. What triggered this quick-gun response? A tweet by the aviation minister “advising” them to do so.
The head of DGCA, which is usually unmoved by most aviation incidents, agreed with the minister through a clarification to a media report. Just when some rare praise was coming the institution’s way.
Take a look at the airlines that have joined issue with IndiGo. No surprises about Air India. The government owns the airline.
SpiceJet’s action, despite the well-known political affinity of its boss Ajay Singh, is not. SpiceJet and IndiGo are the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton of Indian aviation. In a nastier way.
I am not just referring to just pricing strategy or network planning here. They each try to undermine the other through gossip, vitriol and intense lobbying.
Ergo, SpiceJet’s expression of solidarity with IndiGo is no different from Trump singing praises of Hillary.
GoAir is not the “I stand with you, bro” type either. But its action too should not raise eyebrows given its gingerly steps in aviation, careful with expansion, cautious about ruffling feathers, least of all belonging to the mandarins at the aviation ministry.
That is the funny thing about the unanimity of these four airlines. They are actually united by their singular dependence on the government for survival.
No airline in India can stay aloft by getting into the bad books of authorities. Schedules, slots, traffic rights …there is feast of requirements that need clearance from the government.
31/01/20 Binoy Prabhakar/CNBCTV18.com
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