Social media is full of airline woes – unreasonable fares, no refunds, overpriced food, cancelled flights and an attempt to sell every possible seat and anything that can be commoditised. Buying a ticket does not guarantee a flight, seat, or class you booked. At the same time, airlines are not making great profits.
Flying has changed greatly in the last few decades, from being an elite privilege to mass transportation, just like buses and trains. If the number of airports and airport capacity has multiplied in the last decade, the number of air travellers has increased several times.
Swanky new airports are more crowded than bus or railway stations. Taking a flight means standing in queue after queue, from getting into the airport to getting out. Besides going through the mandatory security screening, you must prove your identity at multiple points. Sometimes, I must keep proving that I am not an imposter or a wanted criminal just for using premium public transportation.
Airways as a mode of transportation have moved to mass transportation, but the aviation processes continue to be where they were when a handful of flights existed. In its limited use, technology adaptation has offloaded many tasks to passengers, like buying tickets, web check-in and printing boarding passes.
Why do we need such an elaborate process of Check-In? The fact that I bought a ticket after giving my name and paying for it should be good enough for me to land at the airport and board the flight. What is the difference between a ticket and a boarding pass? Almost none. The legacy of check-in goes back to when airline tickets used to be flexible with a change of dates. Without digital updates, you needed an additional document to account for the actual departures. Today, it is just a process airlines use to sell additional services. The fact that web check-in is mandatory means it can be automated even if ticket details have been modified.
Now the only check you need to do is that I am indeed the person holding the ticket. That check is anyway done at the airport entry. Can we avoid repeating it at the check-in/baggage drop counter again? Yes. This may require the airline’s desk and the security teams at the entry point to work in sync or trust the check done earlier.
We may need to redesign and re-organise airports. What if the entry point itself is the check-in/baggage drop point eliminating many processes? Let the extra people hang out on the premises till they have yet to check-in.
Airport security processes have been eased only to the point that you do not have a baggage tag, and no stamping is done on your boarding passes or a separate line for DigiYatra users. The requirement to put everything in huge trays is a pain, especially if the travellers are elderly or unwell. The help of any kind is missing or available at a cost.
New-age travel needs include carrying at least one phone plus charger, and a fair percentage of travellers carry 3-4 electronic gadgets. The processes need to accommodate these common requirements seamlessly. Either technology or common-sense approaches need an introduction to avoiding unpacking and packing all the gadgets at two ends of the scanner. This is the most chaotic part of the drill on a busy day.
Individual scanning of each traveller is embarrassing. Wonder why we need it for a flight when we walk into far more crowded railway stations. Why do authorities think air travellers, who cannot even run away mid-air, are a bigger risk than train or bus travellers? Some precautions may be required for international travel, but for domestic travel, flights are the same as other modes of transportation.
Aerobridge usage needs to improve even at the cost of commercial dynamics. The turnaround time of a flight is far lower with Aerobridge, and customer hassles are far lesser. Standing in queue to board the bus and then the flight while holding your bags is a pain. Sequential boarding is simply impossible with buses ferrying to aircraft.
Once we understand aviation as mass transportation, we must bring the prices of the basic items sold at airports to the mass levels. Isn’t this why there are long queues at the complimentary lounges? Should the authorities not have a parallel of a canteen, as it used to be once upon a time to serve basic chai and meals? If they are operational, most outlets will go out of business. The empty chairs, anyway, indicate little business.
Ticket pricing needs to be more transparent with each route’s upper limits. Manipulation of the price using cookies is unethical.
The pre-and post-flight times should reduce drastically. At current levels, short-haul flights are meaningless. In Bengaluru, we spend at least four hours before take-off and a similar time after landing--- when the flights are on time. Automated messages from airlines add to the stress. What is the point of creating world-class terminals if they are not linked to local transportation, as in the case of T2 in Bengaluru?
I wish railways provide good trains for distances up to 600 km and between key cities, reducing the need for short flights. Until then, the aviation industry will look to overhaul its processes for the changed nature of aviation.
ANURA DHA GOYA L
Author and founder of IndiTales
(Tweets @anuradhagoyal)