With private Indian carriers setting high passenger service standards, the Maharaja - which is in the midst of a do-or-die makeover - has been forced to pay attention to this long ignored aspect.
Known for indifferent passenger handling over years, the National Aviation Company India Ltd (NACIL) - formed by merging Air India and Indian Airlines - has for the first time set up a strategic business unit (SBU) for ground handling at airports. Its entire focus will be on facilitating passenger movement at airports.
'All airport functions that Air India and Indian Airlines used to perform like security and baggage handling would be done by this SBU and its focus would be on customer care,'' NACIL CMD V Thulasidas said. Also, the new ground handling policy cleared by government mandates AI to form a company to do the job.
''For airport check-in we have decided to deploy only our own people, including new recruits,'' said Thulasidas. Among other things, the check-in experience at AI counters has been a sore point with travellers, mainly abroad, where this job is outsourced. On the other hand, the sole private Indian carrier flying abroad, Jet, and the one waiting in wings to do so, Kingfisher, highlight customer service as their USPs.
05/11/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
Monday, November 05, 2007