It was great news that Indian Airlines has got clearance to acquire a new fleet of aircraft?the first time after Rajiv Gandhi?s premiership. He obviously understood the need for a competitive national airline that subsequent governments did not. Today, with the Congress alliance back in the saddle, the Praful Patel ministry has moved forward. However, it has to be said that over the last few years, the airline has brought its service in the cabin and on the ground at par with all the others. The food on board has improved enormously, the staff are smiling and helpful and extremely patient with irate passengers who have been subjected to delays and snags. The management has to be congratulated for having maintained those standards. How can an airline be expected to deliver quality when all the aircraft are decrepit and old? There are bound to be technical problems that force the delays. Despite all that, the human service continues to be compassionate. Soon, Indian Airlines will be able to take the others on ? apples with apples and not apples with oranges. Let us have no more delays. Let us capitalize on the growing travel demands.

Then there is Air India? making full fare-paying passengers get off flights on their whim, always over-booking first and club classes. This should not be the case if it intends to compete internationally, but it has bad ground service compared to the domestic airline but good cabin service. I was nearly taken off the flight at Heathrow with a paid club class ticket, then I realized, once I boarded, that crew, flying free, had taken the club seats, two commanders in first class along with travelling officers of Air India and the Authority. There were two paying passengers and both were allocated the worst seats.The very senior management honcho on board spent 90 per cent of the flying time sleeping on the captain?s ?flat bed? in the cockpit.

Path correction

With inbound international travel booming, the corrective in Air India has to be put in place overnight. Get a first-class head in place, someone who understands what is essential, and who is passionate about travel, style, quality and service, with no arrogance. An eclectic international citizen with an understanding of India. We can do without people in the management who spend their time currying favour with political bosses or exploiting a government carrier. That is what the new minister of civil aviation has to ensure. He has to unravel and rectify what he inherited.

Juxtaposed with this, the Airport Authority continues to be utterly inept and functions like a backward government operation of the command economy era. The officers appear disinterested and are often rude and arrogant. The mess at the airports is generally because all the booths are never manned, when they are manned people are chatting away, unconcerned about passengers, and drinking the interminable tea. There is never anyone to take a complaint or make corrections. This Authority needs to have itself shaken up and whipped into shape or have its ?authority? taken away and leased to the private sector. The mindset of those government employees needs to change radically.

It is time to wield a whip. It is time to enforce style and quality. It is time to capitalize on a booming market. It is time to restore the earlier reputation we had as a people of unmatched hospitality, great skills, the ability for hard work. The ill-mannered babus have to be propelled into following the new parameter, with no excuses for mediocrity. They need to be accountable to the public. There are easy solutions to this problem, it has been done before: all it needs is political determination and will. The civil aviation and the tourism ministries seem to be super-active in setting the new ethos. It is this ?service sector? that will increase India?s GDP.