Kingfisher Airlines, India’s only 5-star airline has an excellent fleet of aircraft and a certain class about it that sets it ahead of its nearest rival Jet Airways, at least on domestic flights. All Kingfisher aircraft are new and have individual TV screens with good in-flight entertainment. I’m pretty much used to being pampered when I fly Kingfisher, which is why I was a bit surprised by my Bombay-Delhi flight this morning.
For starters, the cabin crew, which is usually very-well groomed, looked out of sorts and stressed out. Missing were the normal welcoming smiles; I could have as well been on a Novosibirsk-Khabarovsk flight on an Ilyushin aircraft. For the first time ever on Kingfisher, I was told that there was no non-veg meal. Is the airline trying to cut down on costs by not serving non-vegetarian food?
And with the wonderful in-flight entertainment system that I praised, there were just 3 TV channels that worked and the audio channels were also limited. I wonder if there is de-motivation around the ranks of the crew and employees of the organisation. Even the captain didn’t address the “guests” during the flight. The legendary service of Kingfisher is something that all Indians are proud of; it would be a shame, if this became a private Air India!
While doing some research on Kingfisher, I found out that that they are neck-deep in debt, which stands at Rs 6,000 crore or about $1.2 billion. It’s chairman Vijay Mallya was quoted by the Indian media as saying that the airline has been experiencing “unprecedented load factors in the last 6 months.” Somehow I am not convinced that’s the reason why the crew aren’t groomed well enough and seem a tad bit indifferent.
For starters, the cabin crew, which is usually very-well groomed, looked out of sorts and stressed out. Missing were the normal welcoming smiles; I could have as well been on a Novosibirsk-Khabarovsk flight on an Ilyushin aircraft. For the first time ever on Kingfisher, I was told that there was no non-veg meal. Is the airline trying to cut down on costs by not serving non-vegetarian food?
And with the wonderful in-flight entertainment system that I praised, there were just 3 TV channels that worked and the audio channels were also limited. I wonder if there is de-motivation around the ranks of the crew and employees of the organisation. Even the captain didn’t address the “guests” during the flight. The legendary service of Kingfisher is something that all Indians are proud of; it would be a shame, if this became a private Air India!
While doing some research on Kingfisher, I found out that that they are neck-deep in debt, which stands at Rs 6,000 crore or about $1.2 billion. It’s chairman Vijay Mallya was quoted by the Indian media as saying that the airline has been experiencing “unprecedented load factors in the last 6 months.” Somehow I am not convinced that’s the reason why the crew aren’t groomed well enough and seem a tad bit indifferent.
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