Every long journey starts with a first step, however small. Only when the journey ends does one realize the long way that has been walked. Some things seemed to have little or no impact when first conjured but sooner or later, the world unravels their true potential. The advent of budget airlines is one of these. The minion of yesterday has rapidly transformed itself into a giant of today.
How has the advent of budget airlines impacted the Indian traveler? Has it been the promised magic wand that has transformed the way an Indian travelled? Has it been the wonder cure that has bridged the divide between the rich and the not-so-rich when it comes to the mode of travel? Has this infant industry lived up to its own reputation?
The business model: The beauty of Budget airlines lies in that it incorporates an excellent idea to rope in passenger volumes, and the ‘sky is the limit’ opportunity to serve! Budget airlines are not an instrument of charity. They very much mean business and leave no stone unturned in pursuit of their mission – Mission Profit. The only way a budget airline differs from its regular counterpart is in the way the profit is generated. If prices have to be lowered but profit margins are to be retained, the only available option is to increase volume and decrease services. ‘Much more with much less’ seems to be the mantra. Budget airlines in India have mastered that art.
To not to expect anything from such an airline is a given and the one odd passenger boarding the aircraft with expectations will be in for a rude shock! As long as the airline delivers them and their luggage to their intended destination and as per schedule, most travelers are content and don’t ask for more. Anything beyond this is as an unexpected bonus and cherished long enough to even give the airline word-of-mouth publicity.
The Target Group. So whom do these airlines target? This is perhaps the single-most variable that can make or break an airline. Enough publicity, offers and counter-offers are made to attract customers. Who are these target customers? Let us understand the psyche of an Indian passenger:
(a) An Indian lives for tomorrow. He is as much interested in saving for the unseen tomorrow as he spends on the present today. He is the epitome and living proof of the saying ‘a penny saved is a penny earned’. It is not uncommon to see an Azim Premji travel economy class. Obviously the lesser mortals have no other option but to subscribe to the theory of saving for a rainy day.
(b) If spending is inevitable, he does enough research to ensure that it is the minimal. In other words, he tries to derive much more with much less! He is ultra-conservative in his mindset. Any in-country flight should not last more than three hours. What is the point in trying to shell out 5000 odd rupees on a regular airline when a budget airline will take you places in, say 500 odd rupees? It is this segment which will make or break a budget airline.
(c) Value additions are more than welcome for an Indian and he doesn’t mind to pay a marginal premium if it is worth that. One can reach New Delhi from Bangalore in about two and a half hours. The fastest train will take at least about 36 hrs for the same journey. Work out the expenses incurred on ticket, food and drinks during the hot and sticky rail journey, and you realize that a budget airline works out much cheaper and faster.
(d) The head rules rather than the heart of an Indian when it comes to monetary matters. Apart from minimal material comforts such as an in-flight meal, in-flight entertainment or slightly spacious seats, there is nothing much to differentiate a regular airline from a budget airline. After all, how much personnel can personalized service mature into! And all of this is over in about three hours, far faster than a Bollywood blockbuster! I, for one, feel that I can have a meal at home / local restaurant before I embark a flight. In the worst case scenario, I can control my hunger pangs for a couple of hours or the budget airline is still offering me the same stuff if I pay. There is enough ready-to-eat stuff available across the counter for me to carry it in my cabin baggage. If I can carry my luggage from my home till the airport, I can trolley it over the last hundred meters within the lounge rather than have an airline handler offer that ‘personalized baggage handling’!
(e) It will be some more time before it sinks into the average Indian that air as a mode of travel is very much within his reach. Currently, LCCs are encashing on the surge of first timers who embark on them more as a matter of experience. In the not-too distant future is the possibility of the government permitting its employees to avail the Leave and Travel Concession (LTC) facilities through the LCCs.
This argument is not to say that the budget airlines have hijacked business from their regular counterparts. There are enough rich Indians who do not mind shelling out a wee bit more for those tiny comforts in life; enough who travel everyday on company money and enough government employees who prefer to travel by jets that are not budget! Air-miles and frequent flyer schemes are too sweet to be ignored, especially if they come for free. These well-heeled Indians, and the airline and support staff, may treat LCCs with disdain and contempt and regard those travelers as a niche below them.
In their quest for business, some of the Low Cost Carriers have resorted to short-cuts and are short-changing people on various counts including accountability, inflexibility in refund and cancellation rules, non-adherence to timings, cancellation of flights to suit the company requirements and in certain cases scant disregard for the passengers. Due to the problem of plenty created by sheer volumes, attention to a passenger is not considered to be an investment by a LCC unlike an upcoming regular airline which tries to retain its clientele by going out of the way. In a country like India with a billion strong population, the presence of only a handful of carriers, both regular and budget, means that every one of them have their hands full and as a matter of fact, are unduly not bothered about what is going to happen to them tomorrow. Expansions, mergers and re-mergers have been the order of the day and where growth is concerned, the sky is the limit for them.
Everything is not rosy for these new entrants though. Government policies, especially the pricing of Aviation Turbine Fuel and the royalties imposed on availing parking and maintenance facilities at airports, most of them government owned, have slashed profit margins. Some LCCs operate on a shoe-string budget and competition on certain routes further depletes the bounty. The fuel surcharge and the entry fee passengers have to pay exceed the actual cost of the ticket.
The airline staffers of today have to now routinely deal with the paan-chewing aam aadmi, his kids and women-folk who don’t differentiate between a railway platform and the lounges of an international airport and their relatives who have come all the way from distant villages to bid farewell to the first time air-traveler. A wise-crack who had long back quoted that it is the journey which should matter and not the destination would surely be squirming in his grave if he realizes how apt his statement is in the context of a budget airline! Between all those snobs who put on their best behavior once inside the aircraft now sits the desi mob with their feet firmly placed on the carefully cushioned seat!
Whether you like it or not, budget airlines are here to stay: there will be enough first-timers, money-conscious travelers, and passengers who have to attend to an emergency – a bounty of customers for budget airlines.
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—About our writer:
Sushma is a Bangalore based writer who has exhaustive interests and is now a part of the Chillibreeze bandwagon to give vent to her otherwise latent talent in English writing. One of the kind who believes that success in 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration! You can expect excellent articles by this writer in the days to come.
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