Why airlines are stonewalling govt's ombudsman proposal

The Ministry of Civil Aviation is pushing for an ombudsman - a key person who would look to address passenger complaints - but private airlines have been resisting any such move for more than three years. As of today, if an airline loses your bags, makes you run around for a refund or if its staff misbehave with you, all you can do is write letters of protest and wait. There is no systematic redressal of passenger complaints.

Which is perhaps why Civil Aviation Secretary K N Shrivastava has called a meeting of all airline CEOs today where, among other things, he is expected to once again bring up the issue of an airline ombudsman.

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An airline CEO told Firstpost that private airlines are worried about any Government-appointed ombudsman being “intrusive” in their day-to-day functioning. Not only do airlines fear that an ombudsman could become a tool for competitive snooping, they also wonder about the very concept of an ombudsman when no clearly defined service standards really exist for the airline industry.

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“What private airlines may agree upon is an ombudsman whose salary is paid by them collectively and who is not a Government appointee. Even then, problems with this concept remain,” said this CEO.

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This CEO said that in case all airlines agree to self regulate and appoint an ombudsman, this will be on the lines of the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) which regulates airports and is funded by them. He said there should not be any favouritism since the ombudsman would be paid by all airlines.

But will airlines agree to have their operations supervised even by a self appointed regulator? World over, some countries have flirted with the ombudsman concept but as of now, no country regulates airlines via an ombudsman.

Besides the issue of intrusiveness, other problems remain with any such system. Each service of an airline needs to have a benchmark, a minimum level slippage beyond which should be brought to the ombudsman’s office. What does an airline do if some passengers on a flight find the food served “bad, stale” while some others on the same flight find the same food tray sumptuous and exotic?

“Air passengers are often irritable, complaining about every small thing when immeasurables like taste of food and politeness of staff are a matter of perception largely. Airlines cannot take every complaint at face value in such cases,” said an airline executive.

The situation is expected to get more aggravated now that the Ministry has allowed airlines to charge for services like preferred seats, checking baggage, meals, musical instruments and sports gear. In the absence of an ombudsman and any monitoring of service standards, airlines have begun charging for services without either adequate information for passengers or any clarifications on certain charges.

Till Monday, IndiGo was advertising on its website about charges for each seat on its aircraft and not just for some seats which could be called “preferred” because of extra leg space. Aviation regulator DGCA had to step in after several complaints were received about IndiGo’s confusing seat preference message. Now, the airline has added a small clarification under the advertisement which says no charges apply if a passenger has not pre-booked a seat. Then, SpiceJet began offering some services for a flat charge of Rs 500 over the weekend but made no mention of this facility to travel websites till early this week.

In today’s meeting, the ombudsman issue may or may not be resolved but it is certainly one which needs some decision. According to DGCA data for March, over 2000 passengers booked on the three LCCs - IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir - faced flight delays of over two hours. The number of such passengers who were booked on the two legacy carriers, Air India and Jet Airways (together with JetLite), was a whopping 18,845. So in all, over 20,000 air passengers faced flight delays of over two hours in March alone. Since the DGCA has laid down specific parameters on flights delays and compensation/refreshments, airlines were forced to offer these to such flyers. Similar standards are needed for other airline services before any ombudsman becomes effective in India.

Today’s meeting of airline CEOs with the Aviation Secretary is also expected to take up the issue of aviation turbine fuel prices and increasing connectivity to certain remote areas in the North East, Ranchi and Belgam.