Air India is losing money when British Airways and Singapore airways are
minting money .
Why ?
Air India is India's flagship carrier airline . It has got more
technical and commercial expertise at its disposal that other airlines
can only dream of . The government patronizes it . Government officials
and politicians have to travel by Air India wherever possible. It has
many creamy routes where it hardly faces any competition . But still ,
it keeps losing money . Why ?
I see one of the main reasons is the lack of customer orientation .
Today , the airline industry is very competitive industry . It is a
service industry , so though there is a tangible service it provides ,
it is the intangible that make the difference .
Basically an airline is supposed to take you from one place to another ,
in reasonable time and in good condition . This it has to repeat time
and again to get a reputation . But this is not enough . Because this
only makes you an average airliner . You need to set very high standards
of service whereby the customer prefers to go with you rather than
someone else , the price being equal . This achieved , even better
service ensures that the customers prefers to fly with you rather than
someone else even if you are charging substantially higher rate .
This will be called the spiral where better service increases customers'
expectations , which when satisfied , builds even more expectations . By
the side the customer does not care about the money part and the airline
is able to charge a premium which is much more value added than the
basic ticketing .
The service of Air India is highly substandard . It lacks customer
orientation . People are paid for being in service rather than being of
service .Inefficiencies are tolerated , nepotism and unionism is rampant
. None is bothered about the customer . Till now and even now the
airline enjoys full support from the government and this has made it
survive . In open market economy it will be an open and shut case .
(
geocities.com/hotsprings)