Airline Service

While making a booking, you often wonder, which airline should I book with? Is it in my budget? Should I pay for the full service airline? Does it fit my schedule? And a ton of other questions flow into your mind while making that booking, be it for business or just for leisure. One important question might also be, should I book myself into Coach/Economy class or spurge that hard earned money for a Business class seat?

A lot has changed over the years in air travel. Today’s customer, like you and me, are more price sensitive. If the company is paying, the company’s travel co-ordinator/HR works with a very low travel budget. Gone are the days that companies would spend a fortune for your seat in business class. They would book you into a full service economy class seat, and understandably so, because of the recession, or the dropping business levels.

Again, with regards to service, in this article, its all a personal opinion and what I have experienced while travelling with different airlines over the years. I was actually flying before I learnt how to walk, and at that time we used to fly with the Golden Eagle – Gulf Air, the national airline of UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, at that time. It was also known for a good level of service during those days. As time passed service slipped, standards dropped and the hard product became stagnant and old. People in the gulf region were introduced to Emirates Airlines in 1985 (the year I was born). Emirates pledged to bring in a new era in airline service. Well, for me, after flying with Emirates so many times, it has no consistency what-so-ever, and no standardized product across its fleet. It makes money by simply dumping seats into any market by using its wide bodied jets, and lowering the prices to fill these seats up. Similar to what hotels do, if they have rooms available at the end of the night, they would sell it to the walk-in customer at whatever price possible in order to fill up the rooms, because once the night is passed the revenue is lost anyways, and they still would have to pay for the housekeeping, electricity etc.

Emirates has grown too big too fast, for its own good. Somewhere down the line the level of service was lost. What Emirates used to stand for is also lost. Typically on a Boeing 777 majority of the International carriers would have a 9 abreast (3-3-3) in economy class, Emirates chooses to pack in passengers like sardine in a 10 abreast seating (3-4-3) across the aisle. Their catering in economy and business used to be good, now that has also faced the cost cutting axe. Speaking of business class, its seats across its different aircrafts (A340-500,B777-200,B777-200LR,B777-300 & A380) are all different. There is no consistency in its business class seats, some have sleeparettes, some flat beds, some cradle seats.  But one thing worth mentioning here is their incredible ICE entertainment system. I do bow down to their entertainment system as it kept me really occupied for the long haul New York to Dubai flights. Also their policy of providing you with unlimited alcohol is somewhat of a winner.  Their crew have lost the touch of service, arrogance and above all attitude have kicked into their crew. Again as I said, mostly a hit or a miss service with Emirates now a days.  I would echo the same opinion about Qatar Airways, whilst the service might be marginally better than Emirates, they are headed down the same road of quick expansion with losing grip on the service.

Asian carriers like Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines are know for their service levels, but its also worth mentioning that these airlines have very robotic service. Their crew do exactly what they are there for, service. Noting more, nothing less. I guess it also comes with the culture. They would not stop and have a chat with you on long haul flight. Their products are also pretty standard across all their fleets. Singapore Airlines, takes the cake in the product department. They have some pretty bold seats out there. They serve more as a premium carrier, even in economy. Emirates, on the other hand, just puts in as many seats as possible in ALL classes of travel. Singapore airline’s Singapore Girls have the fair and have poise of the 1980s era cabin crew, which brings back the romance of travel.

Indian carriers have a very good level of service, I’m not just saying that because I am from India, but you need to experience it yourself. Especially after the deregulation of the airline industry, there have been a wave of private carriers that have brought a level of service that was previously unknown in the Indian market. With this, even the government airline Air India started pulling up its socks and revamped the service. Jet Airways still leads the pack in terms of service provided on the ground as well as off the ground, equally worth mentioning was the service on Kingfisher Airlines, which would go to the level of even polishing your shoes in their KingfisherFirst (Business) cabin. Their seats are different on their short haul and long haul fleet, but their food and drinks service really leaves you impressed. One down side, for all Indian carriers, is their ground service and airport facilities, majority of them don’t have their own lounge facilities or transit facilities at the airports, whilst international airlines like Emirates, British Airways have managed to open up their own lounges in Indian Airports.

Delta, American Airlines, Northwest (now Delta), United, Continental Airlines (now United) all have a similar service level. Whilst travelling domestically within the US you feel like its just another Greyhound bus service on the aircraft, with nothing given to you for free, even though these are full service carriers, and if they do, it would be of miniscule portion sizes. One of the major complaints with these carriers is that their service is really really bland. They tend to just be there on the aircraft for your safety, noting more. This includes business class seats. The airport lounges are a far cry from what you would expect in a business or first class lounge of an international carrier. They don’t serve free alcoholic beverages, food is there, in the form of snacks like pretzels, cereals etcs. All this is done in the name of “cost cutting” and “avoiding bankruptcy”. The American consumer/passenger doesn’t really have a choice as all the airlines are doing the same, so you got to travel with one of them and pay a hefty ticket price for nothing.

This was a very broad comparison about the service of airlines that I have mostly tired and tested. I agree I am no expert at making comments about airlines, but just felt like penning down the analysis I have had with a few airlines that I have flown. A lot more airlines left to be tested out. I have not included lowcost carriers, because its not fair to compare them with their full service counter parts. Low cost carriers I have tired are flydubai, indigo, spicejet, Jet Blue, southwest. And the worst out of the lost probably was spiceJet. 

And before you fly the next time - checkout Seat Guru, to chose the best seat for your flight. www.seatguru.com

Airline Economy Seats Chart

	Seat Pitch	Seat Width	Seat Recline
	32”	19.7“	32”
	32“	17.5”	6”
	32”	19-20”	6-8”
	32“	17.5”	n/a
	31-32”	17.2”	6 degrees
	32”	17.75”	15 degrees
	31“	17.5”	n/a
	34”	17”	32 degrees
	31-35”	17-18”	5”

Indian Aviation

A couple of years back the Indian aviation consisted only of TWO airlines – Indian Airlines and Air India. Those were the only two airlines covering the domestic as well as the international market. These airlines were often plagued with long delays and departure at ungodly hours to utilize the aircraft to their fullest. There was no improvement in the soft or the hard product over the years as they had a monopoly over the Indian market. Ticket prices were also at a level which most of the Indians could not afford.

Boom! There was a deregulation of the aviation industry and private carriers could enter, they had to operate for 5 years minimum in the domestic market to be able to offer international destinations. Fair enough to see if the companies would actually survive the difficult market, owing solely to the high fuel prices and of course, India’s famous labor unions.  I am not dismissing the fact that other countries don’t have labor union problems, like the recent British Airways problems, or even the Lufthansa strikes, but in India this problem is unique.

I’m sure most of you have read the papers lately about how Air India (India’s government airline) was unable to pay the salaries of its pilots for over 5 months. Then came in Jet Airway’s decision to slash the new joinees into the airline in order to save costs, then Kingfisher getting its accounts frozen due to lack of funds, hence services were affected. We are talking about the big players in the Indian aviation industry going bust. What made this happen?

I am no expert at analyzing, but my passion for aviation made me just pen down my opinion of the Indian aviation market. I am not going to include the political side to things in the aviation because it is very controversial. But just to put things plain and simple this full service airlines, with a good financial backing have just gone bust.

Personally, I have flown Air India, Jet Airways, Indigo, Kingfisher in the past and having a service level to that of Indian based airlines is second to none! They treat you with warmth, care and comfort, some more than others. Jet Airways is known for their service levels because they are a full service airline, but not to forget Indigo, which is India's number 1 low cost carrier, expect to be treated like royalty even though you have paid less than half of the ticket price compared to that of jet airways. They have new aircraft and on time all the time. Well groomed crew... might sound like im advertising for Indigo here, so im going to stop now. 

Jet Airways was and is a more conservative airline in terms of expansion and advertising. They have been around longer than Kingfisher. A smart move was to open up a scissor hub at Brussels to connect the Indian passengers from different cities in India to different cities in the US, because honestly the market is not big enough to warrant direct flights into the US from India, a case-in-point is Air India itself, operating brand new Boeing 777-200LRs into New York Kennedy and New York Newark airports from Bombay, Delhi, Ahemdabad, Hydrabad and Chennai. What you don’t know while buying your ticket is that they are probably going to route you through Mumbai or Delhi for all flights.

Competition is fierce for the US and Europe market from India, including the giants of Middle East, Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and on a smaller scale, but not insignificant is also Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines for the west coast US. Again you also have Kuwait Airways, Turkish Airlines, Egypt Air also fighting for their share of the India-US market.

Gulf Market has always been lucrative for the Indian airlines but alas it’s a low cost market. Air India seems to be making the most money on this market, but now Jet Airways, Indigo (India’s number 1 low cost carrier) have seemed to join the bandwagon. Adding to this, also the middle east giants have come into the picture to cut prices and have a fierce market competition in terms of ticket prices. Air India kicked itself again in its foot by creating Air India Express - a low cost carrier operating to gulf destinations and a few south east Asian destinations. Agree, that they did scale back on their mainline operations, but either of them would be able to survive. Both airlines, on the same rout is a bit of an oxymoron as they will be cutting into their own market share, analyzing the passenger given on any one day either choosing Air India or Air India Express. 

Kingfisher’s owner Vijay Mallya is also a part of UB Brewery – which is the single largest alcohol producer in India. Now after that success they managed to start an airline named Kingfisher, eager to enter the international market, they managed to take over ailing Air Deccan (Indian low cost carrier) and got its license into operating international market. Without looking around it just started expanding into international routes. For example, entering into the Mumbai to London Heathrow and Delhi to London Heathrow routing takes a lot of courage as there are operators that have been there for ages and have not been able to make a profit out of that route.

At one point you had Kingfisher, Jet Airways, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Air India all operating on these routes with upto two flights a day or more.  How many flights can this routing support? There is not a big enough market to have so many airlines operating the same route because there is also competition from the likes of Emirates, Qatar and Eithad doing the same routes via their respective hubs and offering a very competitive pricing.

How do you become a millionaire from a billionaire? Start an airline. This is a famous saying in the aviation industry, and I’m sure that is exactly what the Kingfisher giant – Vijay Mallaya has done. By buying out Air Deccan he started digging his own grave. When a full service airlines, attempts to buy out low cost carrier it goes bust. Jet Airways made it work when they started their own low cost carrier Jet Light. But that was from scratch, with no  debt burdens on it. Kingfisher has a way of doing things, and its quite flamboyant. Being conservative might help sometimes, especially in a volatile market like India where the consumer is VERY price sensitive, be it travelling internationally or domestic.

Lesson learnt, the Indian aviation industry will survive through this because the market is big enough, Jet airways has now created a nieche for their market, as Kingfisher’s fleet is grounded, their seats are  selling like hotcakes. Not to forget though, that they are still in the red.

Indigo Airlines, on the other hand, has started booming. They have already hit the black in terms of figures and profits are rolling in. They do have certain unique advantages due to their business model, and it could become the next Air Asia.

Well enough of my ranting on the airlines of India, I could actually go on and on and on about all of this because this is somewhat of my passion. Aviation industry has always amazed me since I was a child. I love taking photographs of different aircrafts, love to see new cities, love to try new carriers, love analyzing on the service levels… and much more. You ask me to speak about aviation at length and I probably would be able to do it!

News Article.

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In my view, this is also happening in India, and as an Indian, i am not proud of it. But my point of view is, it shouldn't be happening at all. These are underage kids we are talking about, who are exposed to a lot of risk once these kind of pictures are published over a social networking site.
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For some reason, my old blog is still active online, and i am not able to gain access to it. So anyways after trying hard to get through, i decided to start a new one. 

So there are a lot of things to talk about, a lot of insights etc. Just keep watching this space.