IA gets choosy about passengers

IA gets choosy about passengers
R K MATTOO

BANGALORE, DECEMBER 21: Indian Airlines is being selective about passengers. That's the latest of its grand plans that we discovered while reviewing the popularity of its Hyderabad-Muscat flight that goes via Bangalore and Kochi.

Strangely, flight IC 973 does not carry passengers on the Hyderabad-Kochi and Bangalore-Kochi sectors. It is only open for passengers travelling on the Hyderabad-Bangalore sector and all Muscat bound passengers. The reason: there are no Customs escort available in Bangalore to be on the flight till Kochi as rules say it is mandatory for Customs to provide an escort on all flights that operate on domestic and international sectors.

The lack of co-ordination between IA and Customs personnel at Bangalore has not only deprived Hyderabad and Kochi of an air link with the Garden City, but has has also resulted in loss of precious revenue for IA. So who is to blame ? Predictably, IA and the Customs point fingers at each other. While IA feels that Customs is obliged to provide an escort,the latter thinks otherwise. IA's point is that since the airline isn't able to get a full load of passengers on its A-320 to Muscat from either Hyderabad, Bangalore or Kochi, it decided on making it a domestic-cum-international flight.

But Customs problems are of different nature. Due to lack of staff in Bangalore, it is unable to provide an escort. So why not allow the Customs man who is on the flight from Hyderabad to continue till Kochi?

Customs in Hyderabad is OK with the idea. But it's the staff at Bangalore which is reportedly being difficult as Bangalore-Kochi sector falls under its jurisdiction. An IA spokesman also clarified that it was the IA that was bearing the expense of flying the Customs personnel, thereby implying that Customs could and should cooperate.

Customs is learnt to have suggested that IA get clearances from allied departments -- like Immigration -- before announcing new flights, ``rather than blame others for their follies... we don't know whether a flight is viable or not,but we cannot disturb our system''. Passengers are fed up with IA and its inconvenient schedules. A classic example is the Chennai-Bangalore sector, on which IA flights operate to ``inexplicable'' timings every day of the week. On some days, there are no flights!

While IA sleeps over repeated complaints from passengers, Jet Airways becomes the sole beneficiary its bad planning to become one of the fastest growing private airlines in the country.