The Truly Indian's Airways

For a second, you will feel confused whether you are traveling by bus, or train, or is it indeed an airplane for which you had booked the ticket. Mad rush at the terminal for boarding makes you wonder if you are in a fish market. Frustrated by the repeated departure delay announcements, you will wonder if you will enjoy the privilege of a good night’s sleep. After pushing yourself through a crowd of people swearing at the terminal executives, you board the plane and to your shock you find it is a free seating arrangement. The only thing that separates this setup from that of traveling by local bus or train is that you will not find anyone reserving a seat by the uncivilized Indian way of placing the handkerchief! The coffee onboard is for sale and the once you are done, the stewardesses come with large black-colored disposal bags wide open for you to throw your cup into. It is almost as if the stewardesses have it written on their forehead “Use Me”!

Guys, this is Air Deccan for you, and if you want to add some spice and ‘teekha’ to it in the ‘Tapori’ style you may as well call it the ‘Air Dhakkan’. I am even told Air Deccan is not supported by Insurance !! I sometimes wonder what kind of feedback are they going to get in case they were to conduct anything like a customer satisfaction survey, i.e. if they would ever dare to.

But lets us just look at what this “weird but great” airline company has achieved. Air Deccan had a main objective when it was started in 2003 i.e. “ To make airways available and affordable to every Indian”. And how successful have they been ! Today Air Deccan tickets are available to everyone at prices as inexpensive as Rs 3 on. Of course, this requires prior booking and this is also exclusive of airport taxes, but still today an Indian is able to travel on air at a total expenditure as minimum as Rs 1500. This is something which never seemed possible during the “bi”poly times of Indian Airlines and Jet Airways. The demand supply balance was totally tilted against the consumer and the price rise was positively steep. But the new stream of airways have changed it all. Every Indian can now dream of reaching his destination within a couple of hours at a much affordable price. And when so, who will really bother about the food and refreshing towels that Jet and like airways provide? If one is very particular about reaching on time and about the comfort onboard, these well-established airways are always there for them. It’s only a matter of time before Air Deccan gets the necessary capital to improve their infrastructure and get substitution in place to keep to their time commitments.