MUMBAI: A majority of Indian air travellers believe that domestic airlines are focusing more on publicity than passenger safety, according to a nationwide online survey conducted by LocalCircles.
The survey, which garnered over 44,000 responses from citizens across 322 districts, found that 76 per cent of respondents felt that many airlines were spending more on marketing campaigns than ensuring flight safety.
Of the 26,696 people who responded to the question on publicity versus safety, 43 per cent said “yes, all of them” while 33 per cent said “yes, some of them.” Only 11 per cent believed no airline was prioritising publicity over safety, while 13 per cent gave no definitive answer.
The findings come in the wake of a string of recent aviation incidents involving several Indian carriers, including Air India and SpiceJet.
Last month, a Tata Group-operated Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad en route to London Gatwick, killing 241 of the 242 passengers and 19 people on the ground. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is currently probing the cause of the tragedy and has submitted a preliminary report.
Just this week, an Air India Kochi-Mumbai flight skidded off the runway during landing amid heavy rain, causing significant damage to the aircraft. On the same day, another Air India flight aborted takeoff from Delhi to Kolkata due to a technical snag, while an IndiGo flight from Goa made an emergency landing over a landing gear issue. Separately, the outer window frame of a SpiceJet Bombardier Q400 aircraft flying from Goa to Pune came off mid-air, triggering panic among passengers.
In another question, the survey asked respondents about the frequency of turbulent or traumatic flight experiences over the past three years. Of the 17,630 people who answered, 75 per cent said that more than half of their flights involved difficult takeoffs, landings, or mid-air events. In total, 64 per cent of respondents said they had experienced at least one such rough flight in the last three years.
Demographically, 63 per cent of the survey participants were men and 37 per cent were women. Around 46 per cent were from Tier 1 cities, 25 per cent from Tier 2, and the remaining 29 per cent from Tier 3, 4, 5 and rural regions.
The findings underline growing concerns among passengers over the safety standards of Indian carriers amid increasing air traffic and aggressive expansion plans by major airlines.