Foreign airlines don’t fly best planes to India V Ayyappan, TNN

[prasad1]

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Ever felt that flying the same airlines between two foreign destinations has been a more pleasurable experience than flying from India to a foreign country? It's not just a feeling, but a reality.


Here is the unspoken truth: Foreign airlines don't deploy to India their best aircraft from hubs like Dubai, Singapore, Frankfurt and Brussels. The India-leg of a long-haul route always has planes which have been in service for a few years.


Passengers travelling from the US or Australia perceive a change in quality of amenities and service inside a flight the moment they change over at a hub like Frankfurt, Dubai or Singapore. Says P Usha, who travelled to London recently, "The aircraft from London to Dubai had the best in entertainment, good reading lights, seats and other amenities. Things turned a little drab on the aircraft from Dubai to India. Seats were slightly worn out and plastic fixtures were yellowing due to overuse."


Air Passengers Association of India national president D Sudhakara Reddy echoes the sentiment. "I have experienced this when I flew recently. Every airline is doing this. Our airports do not bother to encourage airlines to bring their best planes on the India-leg of long-haul routes. This may also be because of a lack of load and airlines do not want to use a new and bigger plane for fear of flying with empty seats," said Reddy.

 

[kunjuppu]

this is probably true, as i think, certain routes (london/new york, tokyo/losangeles, singapore/london) are considered not only premium routes, but also flagship routes. also competition is probably keen onthese routes for the higher paying business and first class passengers.

i usually travel on BA london/chennai and have found the planes well maintained and also the chennai crowd keeping the washrooms usable even at the end of the 10 hour journey, something that i find a rarity in flights out of mumbai, and definitely out of delhi,

a few years ago, i boarded a Cathay flight out of hong kong to chennai. i was looking forward to the flight as it was my first on Cathay. the aircraft was junky and the food awful.

on a slightly different note - three years ago i took a chenna/dubai/london flight on emirates. the chennai/dubai was a good plane, the washrooms clean and the food excellent. the veggie food out of dubai was awful, the bathrooms not cleaned and water oozing out of it and worse, the passenger behind me coughing right throughout, and gave us his infection. also, the flight attendents out of chennai were mostly indian and good, whereas those out of dubai were east europeans, not good grasp of english and arab men, who couldn't care less about service.

my place of birth is badagara and i would never have thought that it would buy me brownie points. about 20 years ago, out of dubai to frankfurt, the local lufthansa staff being malayali, noted badagara as POB on my canadian passport , and upgraded me and my twins.

 

[vgane]

Air India flights are the lousiest among all...I had the misfortune of travelling from Riyadh to Delhi...The plane was full of labor class returnees in cattle class...Very poorly maintained ....And rude staff...Food was just average...Totally junk

Emirates flights from Dubai to San Fransisco was great..The ambience, the service quality and comfort are normally excellent

Emirates from Delhi to Dubai are good with best inflight entertainment...Embellished with tasty food

However the same world class Emirates became common class for the Dubai to Delhi segment what with old dilapidated entertainment and just average food

Another point is that flights from Dubai to other Arab/Middle East cities such as Kuwait, Cairo have poor vegetarian food..It is really painful that we can only take the bread and airlines do not care to satiate our taste buds...

 

[Raghy]

Greetings.

The OP is true. I went via Singapore and via Bangkok. From Brisbane To Bangkok, the service would be good. The food would be good. Regular supply of drinks... From B'kok to India.... well, it wold be hot, smelly, no service, no sign of any drinks ( even for purchasing!)

From Brisbane to Singapore.. just cool! New movies.. I usually would watch a Tamizh movie.. nice trip. Singapore to India wouldn't be that bad though. would get one drink.. only once got two drinks.. decent food.

Good experience was in Qantas.. LA to Brisbane ( non-stop). Wouldn't like to repeat is .... United Air Lines Toronto to LA.

Cheers!

 

[tbs]

hi
its true....any airlines goes to india as granted....becoz attitude....i used travel from washington DC to london then london to chennai

last month...i travel regularly every year...the food/attitude from US to london is different from london to chennai...i had very

bad experiences with air france and air india....i travelled from delhi to paris then paris to montreal.....both ways they were very

rude with english speaking indians....my experience with air india from delhi to chicago very miserable....

 

[tks]

A "noticeable percentage" of Indians and even PIO/OCS types bring their 'spit on the ground' mentality to anything they do. Obviously this is *not* a general statement about all Indians or PIOs.

The rest rooms are destroyed and made unusable in no time if there is a large population of Indians in the mix in a flight. This has given rise to an attitude towards Indians in general.

I know what I am saying may seem offensive to a few but anyone that has traveled a while for many decades know what I am talking about ...

 

[padders]

Re.Post #6: Yes, I totally agree with Shri TKS, not just re. the use of rest-rooms, but generally the "attitude" shown by some Indians. I know generalisations are only half true, but an air-hostess friend of mine said Indians make quite the worst passengers. I saw this very recently, when the (Indian) man on a JFK-Dxb flight seated in front of me took great offense because the stewardess did not come when he rang for help. He was rude and uncivil, and expected to be treated like a Maharaja. The airstewardess very politely explained to him that the aircraft was going through extreme turbulence and the captain had even told the crew to be seated! I felt embarrassed by this guy's crass behaviour.
However, I think as passengers we ought to complain if things like the inflight entertainment system don't work. I've seen this time and time again on the Dxb-Del sector of Emirates, and have always complained and been redeemed with free airmiles!

 

[biswa]

Too much complaining is it also part of the "Indian attitude"?

The OP is quite true though. I recently flew from SFO to SIN on SIA on a 777-300ER. SIN to BOM was on a 777-200, so the entertainment system was slightly old, fewer movies etc. But on the other hand the flight was just 1/3 full, so I could take all 3 seats and sleep horizontally.

I dont think the airlines are exhibiting racism when choosing aircraft. Some arguments from their point of view:
1. The India leg is usually shorter: 4-6 hours, so passengers should be able to do with less food and less entertainment. The trans-Pacific or trans-Atlantic legs are often 8-14 hours, so it makes sense to have more food and better entertainment.
2. There are more dollars / euros / dirhams paying passengers available in the trans-oceanic legs. Since they pay a larger fraction of the charge, it makes sense to offer better amenities. Not to mention that there will be more first/business class seats since they would be better utilized on those legs.

 

[Haridasa Siva]

I had always felt what has been expressed in this thread.
When we fly Emirates from SA (Johannesburg) to Dubai, we would have better aircraft where my child could have fun making calls from her seat to one of us sitting besides her. But such 'phones' are not available on Dubai-Chennai route. Similar is the case with food/drinks.
I have seen old air hostesses with rude behaviour on AI flights.
I have experienced that the treatment on the India leg is generally not so good.
Interestingly, though there is no in-flight entertainment in most domestic flights in India, we were surprised with one on Jet airways from Varanasi to Delhi (probably to satisfy foreign passengers on this route?!)

But biswa does have a point in his post no.8.

 

[renuka]

Only today I ventured into this thread.

Glad to know that it is all about in flight service conditions.!

I was under the impression that technically faulty planes are used!

So as long the plane does not crash..just sit and tolerate!LOL

But what I can not stand is women who wear jasmine flowers in their hair during flights to India!

I wish they had more consideration that Jasmine smell can be unpleasant in an air conditioned enclosed place!