The festive start to 2024 was marred by a slew of lowbrow incidents in the Indian aviation space, most of which transpired on terra firma (thankfully), as opposed to a mile high. Occupying the top spot on the bulletin board of bad behaviour is Sahil Kataria, a hapless honeymooner, who turned into an overnight punching bag after a video of him assaulting the co-pilot of a Delhi-Goa flight went viral. The pilot of the low-cost airline was making a flight delay announcement (almost 8 hours after scheduled departure) onboard the aircraft, when the disgruntled passenger lost his cool.
Kataria was subsequently offloaded and arrested, but he managed to secure bail. Although he hasn’t been placed on any no-fly list, experts believe he should be permanently barred from flying. The incident occurred on Sunday — which witnessed thick fog and smog pushing visibility at the New Delhi airport to zero from 5 am to 10 am, which delayed as many as 400 flights. A domino effect of fog-related disruptions in Delhi was seen in other airports as well.
In one instance, a flight that took off from Goa could not land at Delhi due to dense fog, and was diverted to the Mumbai on Sunday. As soon as the doors were thrown open, many passengers rushed out of the aircraft and sat on the tarmac, while others started consuming their supper, right there beside the runway. As footage of the incident spread like wildfire, airport operators in coordination with CISF’s Quick Response Team (QRT) cordoned off the passengers into a safety zone, as they had refused to get into the airline coach and proceed to the terminal building.
Even celebrities weren’t spared the vagaries of weather as actor Radhika Apte and her co-passengers found themselves locked in an aero-bridge for several hours at Mumbai airport. Travellers, including the elderly and infants were deprived of food, water and washroom facilities, with the airline staff waddling around like headless chickens. It’s been said before, but it’s worth reiterating: airline operators and airport administrators in India are faring terribly at mitigating such recurring crises and prioritising the welfare of passengers.
India’s aviation sector is bursting at its seams, and approaching footfalls that could rival that of cheaper means of transport. Government data tells us that India saw 3.9 lakh domestic flyers on Jan 15. Domestic flights were packed tightly with airlines reporting load factors between 90-95%. On the flip side, on-time performance of various operators ranged between 18-66%. Obviously, such shortcomings don’t bode well for the industry, and it has riled up the high command at New Delhi too.
In the aftermath of last week’s incidents of unprecedented fog-induced flight disruptions, the civil aviation ministry has announced the setting up of war rooms at six metro airports. SOPs on mitigating passenger inconvenience were also issued to all airlines. The aviation watchdog DGCA asked airlines to publish accurate real-time information regarding flight delays and appropriately sensitise the staff at airports to suitably communicate with passengers. Needless to say, as long as stakeholders in this sector view the customers through the cattle-class lens, such proposals for reform will merely serve as lip-service.