In a recent survey conducted by the aviation insights company, Flightstats along with the journal Bloomberg, Air India was rated the third worst airline in the world. Goes without saying that the flag carrier airline of the Country did not take it well.
Air India immediately responded indignantly. “We totally disagree with the report published by FlightStats about AI. Initially it seems that the report is fabricated so AI management will investigate the report till the end,” statement by Dhananjay Kumar, Spokesperson, AI. Following the ruckus, Flightstats has now also come clear about the survery details. Jim Hetzel, Vice President of aviation and distribution at FlightStats stated that this list is a result of a combined data from over 500 resources. The survey took into account issues regarding cabins, service quality, and flight delays. Additionally, Bloomberg reported that wrong carrier can delay travel by 55%, and the right one can reduce travel time by 11%. It was this percentage that put Air India in the dreaded top 3 position.
Flightstats management although denied the negative impact on Air India due to the survey conducted by them. “We understand that a recent article by Bloomberg has portrayed Air India in a negative light and we want to assure you that FlightStats by no means endorsed their portrayal of your performance. While we do highlight exceptional performers, we do not, and have not, highlighted low performance or maintain a list of worst performing airlines,” said Flightstats response.
Air India has been in a turmoil since a decade, struggling with losses. But the situation seems better than before with the company making just Rs. 58 Lakh loss everyday as opposed to its Rs. 4 crore loss before. The flight carrier is now setting its target at a profit of Rs. 1,086 crore by March 2017 and first net profit by 2022.
It is apparently in this direction that the management have strived for several initiatives and promotions to uplift the reputation of the carrier. One of these is reserving the third row in the economy class exclusively for lone women flyers. Another one was tweeting about the appreciation letter written to the company by the Nobel Laureate of India, Amartya Sen. Air India tweeted saying “#AI is honoured with the words of appreciation from #Noble Laureate #AmartyaSen for travel on #AI111. Hope to see you on board again,” attaching the letter from the distinguished professor.
Both the initiatives have been taken with a pinch of salt and furthered mocked the management. While the reserving of seats for women pointed out to more of gender discrimination than gender equality, Amartya Sen’s flight again was delayed by more than an hour, as a result of which it landed in London 40 minutes later than the scheduled time from Delhi. Unless Air India bucks up and does some serious strategizing, its image and revenue will keep depreciating.
The Worst 5 International Airlines of 2016 were –
- El Al – 56 percent
- Icelandair – 41.05 percent
- Air India – 38.71 percent
- Philippine Airlines – 38.33 percent
- Asiana Airlines – 37.46 percent
The Best 5 International Airlines of 2016 were –
- KLM – 11.47 percent
- Iberia – 11.82 percent
- JAL – 12.2 percent
- Qatar Airways – 13.66 percent
- Austrian – 14.26 percent
