American Airlines Gets Sued for $2.5 millions As Special Assistance Rules Come to Naught

It was only a few days back that i had written about the need for training the airline crew and staff away from rule-book and making them more sensitive towards the needs of passengers so that the need does not arise for the carrier to tender apologies in its aftermath. Another shocking incident has happened again. This time it is with the American Airlines and the passenger is a wheelchair-bound women. When it comes to providing services to passengers in need of special assistance, especially the disabled people, almost all airlines require these passengers to inform them well in advance. And, this woman also did precisely the same. So, when there was information with the carrier beforehand, the required service was not provided in time to the woman, forcing her to crawl humiliatingly in front of so many people to move into the cabin. How many of these onlookers came to her help is another issue, but is it not a very serious breach of duty for AA? Was it a rare miss or a callousness in attitude of the staff that they failed to get the ramp.

American Airlines special assistance rules have provision of providing the wheelchairs at airports and inside the cabins. These also permit you to carry your own wheelchairs right till the gate of cabin and then check these in at no additional cost. It also seeks to provide priority check in for these passengers so that there is a minimal discomfort to passengers. AA also requires passengers to disclose their special assistance needs at least 24 hours before scheduled departure of flights in domestic sector and at least 72 hours before scheduled departure in case of international flights. This woman, Theresa Purcell provided this information well in advance of her flight.

While the airline has apologised for this incident, they are not likely to make any compensation to Ms Purcell, even though it is clear that the discomfort was caused to passenger due to negligence of the staff. It is also a violation of Air Carrier Access Act. Ms Purcell has brought out a legal case against the carrier and asked for compensation of $2.5 million. 

Whats Wrong With the Airline Services?

Airlines services are considered to be one of the finest in hospitality industry. In fact, it is the factor of treatment of passengers in hands of cabin crew which defines whether passengers will be flying with the same carrier again or not.

In the past 6 months, we have come across a number of incidents where the airlines have been very rude to treat the passengers who had deserved a more humanely treatments. These incidents has particularly been related to women and kids and diseased people. While one of the carriers did not let a mother take her breast pump as hand baggage which would have fed her infant, the other breastfeeding mom was subject to public embarrassment and humiliation in the cabin by the crew. As if these incidents were not to learn lessons from, there came another incident in which a mother and her toddler were asked to deplane simply because the toddler would not stop crying!

There have been instances in the past as well where the fellow passengers have complained of the infants and toddlers crying on the planes which causes them to lose sleep, the recent incidents highlight that carriers, while going by the rule book, inevitably turn up being rude and inhumane. What follows afterwards is a barrage of apologies and, in some cases, the amendment of the rule books also happens so that these incidents can be avoided in future. But, this leaves a basic question. Can’t the crew be trained in advance to take the right decision in the wake of any out-of-the-book development? Is there a training gap?

While it is true that training can not be imparted as future might throw up unforeseen events, this is also a fact these matters of sensitivity did not warrant such a response which the carriers came up with. A little more sensitive considerations could have avoided these issues.

IndiGo Beware- Spicejet Turns Profitable As Turnaround Begins to Show Results

The last seven quarters for which SpiceJet has been continuously running into losses might have been the most difficult times of its history. The awful story of loss making has seen an end in this quarter ending March 2015. The carrier has reported profit of Rs 225.2 millions. Return to profits has been due to a number of stringent measures taken by the carrier by cutting down on unprofitable routes, reducing its fleet size and bringing in measures to control the costs besides offering customers more attractive options to fly with it. The carrier also saw a change of hands from the Marans quitting the field in favour of Ajay Singh, the new mentor who also infused fresh equity to ward off the creditors and make the turnaround a possibility.

With IndiGo the only player that commands respect for its operations and no other LCC close to it, there is space for another player like Spicejet to make its presence in Indian aviation sector which is fast growing. Last year, the same quarter results in Rs 3.22 bn of losses for the carrier though it catered to about 19 percent of the Indian market. In the current quarter the market share has plummeted to less than 10 percent since the carrier had to cut the size of its fleet and move away from many sectors of travel. Ajay Singh is likely go for another round of funding which it is likely to use for rebuilding the feel and gain more customers.

With the reporting of profits, eyes would again be set on the moves of the carrier as it limps back to health.

Must Know Riders to the Indigo Web Check In Rules

Web check in means that you are able to complete the procedure and formalities of check in right from you place before heading to the airport. This saves you the time and hassles involved in standing in long queues and waiting for your turn at the check in counters of the airport. India’s budget carrier, IndiGo, has also introduced the Web Check In services which can be used by using its downloaded mobile application, mobile website or its normal website. But, there are riders to this service which shall be noted. These riders are:

1. This service is not available for international flights. So, you can use it only if you are flying domestic sectors.

2. In case you do not have check in luggage, you can proceed directly to security check with your boarding pass. There is no need to get it stamped at check in counter.
However, if you are having the check in luggage, IndiGo provides drop in facility at select airports around the country. These cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi and Ahmedabad. For other airports, regular check in procedures have to be adhered to.

3. Certain special types of passengers are not allowed web check in facility. These are passengers with infants, on wheelchairs and unaccompanied minors.  These people have to mandatorily check in at the airport.

Extra Money For Extra Legroom for Flights To/From India

Have you rued travelling in the low cost carriers or the cramped up economy sections of the full service carriers? Whether acceptable or not, it has been a fact of life that if you want to save on money while flying, you will have to live with the lesser space of your seats. But, this is fast changing as the carriers are realizing the need for diversifying their seat-portfolios on offer and are not just providing the cabin class experiences but are also providing more options for seating within a class of cabin, particularly the economy section.

International airlines have started offering more legroom seats to passengers which comes with an additional charge, which can be very steep at times. Lufthansa, KLM, Singapore, Etihad, United Airways and other such carriers have different charges for different location seats with more legroom. These seats could be the preferred ones, the exit row seats, the economy plus seats- all having more legroom space.

Whether you would be willing to pay the extra charges, which could be even three times the normal or standard fare would depend on a number of factors such as whether you are travelling alone or with family, desired level of comfort and, of course, the ability to pay more for economy in lieu of moving to a higher cabin class.

If you are traveling in economy sections of international carriers, it is worthwhile making a check on availability of these seats. 

Ryan Air Invests in MRO Base in Poland

Ryan Air, one of the foremost low cost carriers of Europe, is now opening up a maintenance and repair organization (MRO) facility in Poland. The airline has announced its plan to invest heavily in this facility which will be capable of performing the C-level checks of 737 aircraft. This will require investment of Euros 6 millions in Wroclaw-Copernicus airport of Poland.

It has to be noted that airlines are subjected to different levels of checks during the course of their life in order to ensure that they remain airworthy and are safe to fly. When these checks are to be performed depends on a number of factors such as the number of hours the plane is flown, the weather conditions in which this is flown for most of the time and many others. Out of these different categories of checks, the C-level checks are the most comprehensive ones in which the whole aircraft is practically built up from scrap. It involves highest costs of all the checks.

By investing in this sector in Poland, Ryanair would be trusting the abilities of local manpower, providing training, generate more employment and deepen its cooperation in a fast growing market. 

Emirates Beats Odds to Retain Profitability in 2014

It happens rarely in aviation industry that a carrier has an unbridled ride of profitability for 27 consecutive years. Emirates has achieved this tremendous feat by turning profitable in 2014, a year which saw many problems crop up for the carrier. It has been able to report a profit of $1.24 billion, a gain of 40 percent. While there were a number of stumbling blocks which it had to overcome, there were some facilitating factors which ultimately led to its good performance. While this is a good news for the carrier, its employees also have something to cheer about. They have been promised extra salary of 9 weeks.

Emirates had to overcome problems of temporary closure of runways at Dubai airport, Ebola outbreak, flight restrictions in conflict zones and unfavorable currency movement vis-a-vis US dollar.

The factors which came to its aid were rapid expansion strategy of the management and the declining fuel prices. It is the only carrier that has the largest number of wide-bodied aircraft such as Boeing 777 and Airbus 380s. To meet its rationale but rapid expansion strategies, it has ordered for another 279 planes besides the 230 already existing ones. The year ahead will see it face considerable challenge from the US carriers that are hell bent on curtailing their growth in the US market.