Although domestic air traffic is predicted to rise by 40 million passengers by the next financial year, travellers have indicated facing at least one issue during their flight experience in the last two years.
Since October, LocalCircles has seen more complaints reported by fliers about excessive fares, flight cancellation, delays, wrong boarding, damaged or misplaced luggage, hike in on board food prices, rude behaviour of staff at check-in counters. The complaints hit a new peak this week as many headed to the airport to board flights during their Christmas and New Year holidays.
LocalCircles, in its recent survey, asked 12,902 fliers about the issues they have faced with the Indian airlines in the last two years, 78% mentioned one or two problems while 22% had a smooth experience on flight.
When asked about their top complaints, 39% mentioned in-flight services, including meals and entertainment, 35% had issues with boarding and check-in procedures and baggage handling, 30% indicated poor aircraft interiors including seats, entertainment systems, 17% said airlines don’t share timely information, 17% have been hassled by flight delays, 9% had issues with airline staff behaviour inside the flight and at the airport, and 9% pointed out other issues.
The next question sought air passengers’ views on whether Indian airlines have been “compromising on passenger comfort”, 88% of the 12,823 respondents agreed while 5% said it was not true.
Survey also indicated that several fliers continue to believe that the aviation regulator has largely been ignorant on customer service shortfalls and that it must ensure better services and behaviour of airline staff and faster escalation mechanisms that are available in real time to passengers.
The survey received over 25,000 responses from air travellers located in 284 districts of India. Some 64% respondents were men while 36% respondents were women. Nearly 47% respondents were from tier 1, 33% from tier 2 and 20% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.
The number of domestic air passengers rose 9% in November, with 1.27 crore fliers reported in the month. The Airports Authority of India has projected the all-India passenger growth as 371 million passengers in 2023-24 and 412 million in 2024-25.
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