City-based flyers are hopeful of getting quality air services after the Tata group took over Air India from the government.
Neeraj Bagga
Amritsar, January 31
City-based flyers are hopeful of getting quality air services after the Tata group took over Air India from the government.
With a large number of domestic and international flights from Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, the flyers believe that the takeover would bring in revolutionary changes, quality in-flight management and efficient service.
Even though a number of flights are suspended due to Covid-19 restrictions, Amritsar-London-Heathrow, Amritsar-Birmingham, Amritsar-Abu Dhabi flights are being operated once in a week, while the Amritsar-Dubai flight is being operated thrice a week. A few domestic flights are connecting the holy city to Delhi, Nanded and Mumbai.
Rameshinder Singh Sandhu, a freelance travel writer, says: “The national carrier of a country is a symbol of national identity and serves as a window to project the image of the country globally.” He said: “I have avoided Air India for a long time, but now I want to travel in it. After all, it’s now in the right hands. Under the Tata group, Air India used to train the staff of Singapore Airlines, which is now counted among the top airlines in the world. Started as Tata Airlines, every foreigner wanted to fly on an Air India plane for a trip to India.”
Talking about Pakistan International Airlines, Sandhu said it used to one of the best airlines in the world like Air India, but complacent and lackadaisical approach, besides corrupt practices, spoiled its show.
Yogesh Kamra, an aviation expert, says “JRD’s Air India in 1940s had set its benchmark in the aviation sector and many five-star airlines operating these days want to replicate those quality services. With Tata now in the cockpit, a lot will change and efforts will be on to attain the same royal glory that JRD Tata had planned for Air India.”
The next few years will be crucial during the transition. A lot of unlearning and re-learning will be required. To earn passenger loyalty, there would be a need to improve onboard and airport services, besides connectivity to secondary cities and improvement in customer services.
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