KOCHI: If the acquisition of the government-owned airline Air India Express (AIE) by Tata Group had triggered hopes of a better customer experience, it’s proving to be a distant dream for the flyers. At least, some recent instances seem to indicate that things have not changed.
Over the past few months, the flyers faced bitter experiences including unexpected cancellations of flights and delays. Now, the airline is facing charges that it supplied stale and expired food to the passengers.
Muhammed Uvais, a native of Palakkad, was one of the flyers who had a bad experience of getting food that had expired.
He had received a complimentary breakfast along with the ticket he booked on Air India Express IX 337 from Kozhikode to Muscat on Tuesday.
“After the takeoff, the cabin crew distributed the airline’s complimentary food to passengers. I asked for Aashirvad’s instant mini idli and sambar. I was randomly checking the description, and my eyes caught the manufactured (November 29, 2021) and best before (August 10, 2022) dates printed on it,” said Uvais.
He checked with his co-passengers, who also received expired food products.“Almost everyone who boarded the flight received expired food and had to return it to the airline. Throughout the whole journey, passengers had to rely on drinking water as almost all food items on board were either expired or stale,” he said.
Another person tweeted with photos that he had received food near the expiry date. “Hope AIE is providing great business deals close to expiry for UAE-bound passengers,” the tweet said. The incident happened on AIE’s Kochi-Sharjah flight last week.
Commenting on the incident, the spokesperson of Air India Express said the airline will investigate the matter. “If it had happened, it must be a mistake from the caterer’s side. Air India Express has adopted strict standard operating procedures. The airline will take strict, strong and corrective actions against the caterer if the allegations are proved right in the investigation,” said the AIE spokesman told TNIE.
According to a source, the practice of serving expired food as complimentary to passengers has been going on for the last few days.“More than half of the items served are either expired or nearing expiry dates,” said the source.