In a letter to the media, the IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) has blamed Air India management for the poor state of affairs at Air India Express. According to IAAI, Air India Express which flagged off from Trivandrum in 2005 with great expectations for the country is now at the brink of ruin. It has suddenly fallen from the sky to the ground. The Air India Express services to the Gulf and the Far East countries was very economical offering a great advantage and financial relief to people from Kerala based in Gulf countries. According to IAAI, the Air India Express had a great beginning and was at the peak of glory in the early stages. The full satisfaction of the customers as well as 100 per cent advance payment for the tickets and the online booking facility without the help of extra manpower all contributed to the fast growth of the carrier. “If you take an average, it was carrying over 2.5 million passengers yearly including more than 1.45 million Keralites. However, this booming situation changed drastically w.e.f 2010 due to some explicit reasons such as shortage of pilots and cabin crew with no flight punctuality, cutting short of all profitable sectors and change of time of flights without prior notice. The years 2010 and 2011 witnessed a lot of cancellations of flights without proper reason or prior notice. Due to the aforesaid reasons, the travelling passengers lost hope in the carrier and the travel agents confidence were at stake, IAAI said. The financial health of Air India Express was so sound that it issued bonds worth Rs. 2000 crores. This had been a great challenging factor for the travel agents who were the sole promoters of Air India Express. “The recent upgradation of the web-site by the Air India Express has resulted in many difficulties for the passengers and travel agents such as not able to purchase the ticket due to non availability of the website, and erroneous picture of seat availability etc. IAAI condemned thes e s o r t o f irresponsible acts such as online nonavailability, shortage of cabin crews, change in time schedule without notice etc and stated that these are all made up allegations by other insurgent airlines to pressurise the superior officials of Air India Express so as to topple Air India Express and stop its operations. The Government must take stringent measures to overcome this situation and save Air India Express for the sake of the country and people, the Association urged.
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