Air India

Air India

R. K. Shah, in his comments in The Jakarta Post, Aug. 12,
1994), highlights the shallow thinking of so many. I was briefly
resident (2 1/2 years) in Bhutan and therefore forced by Indian
Home Office rules to use Air India, Indian Airways and Air India
pilots on Druk Air. Let me make it clear that it is normally the
customer who selects the airline, not vice versa. If the airlines
were able to select their customers, I am sure Thai Airways, for
example, would ban some people entirely because of their in-
flight behavior.

Where is this mythical Indian Nationalism which should present
Air India and Indian Airways with 800,000 potential customers? It
is Indian people who are choosing to use another airline for very
good reasons.

Poor maintenance, both mechanical and inside the passenger
compartment, poor service and dirty conditions in flight, will
drive even the most nationalistic passengers to airlines which
offer reasonable or excellent service.

The real problem I should think, for Indian travelers, is not
how much Lufthansa sends home. The issue is how long any airline
will bother to carry plane loads of semi-drunk, betel nut
spitting, untidy, rubbish creating, vomiting passengers.

I think the highest level of profit would be well-earned in
this particular market.

J. W. CARNIE

Jakarta