On September 8, hundreds of passengers were stranded at various airports in the country. More than 150 domestic and international flights were cancelled. Jet Airways? 400 out of 760 pilots reported sick, leaving 13,000 passengers high and dry. Given that the strike got Mumbai and Delhi on a standstill ? which bear the load of more than a lakh passengers a day ? the lack of a contingency and a backup plan is glaring.
What makes matters worse is that the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) does not have specified guidelines for the airlines to have a concrete contingency plan. Mausami Chakrabarti, Spokeswoman, MOCA, the governing body for Aviation in India, says they don?t have a plan because no one ?speculates? a strike. ?Nothing of this sort has ever happened, so we don?t have any back up plans. Moreover, the strike was by Jet pilots, so it is primarily the responsibility of the airline to take care of the passengers.?
?I am not aware of any guidelines specified by the ministry in this regard,? says Ajay Prasad, former Secretary, MOCA. ?The ministry, however, has the responsibility to see that passengers are not unduly harassed or stranded and if the ministry?s officers are required to persuade other airlines to mobilise extra effort, it will certainly act pro-actively.? On the issue of a contingency he adds, ?It is difficult to have a standard operating procedure in terms of a back up plan as the situation may be varying in intensity and location.?
He also avers that in situations where one airline has to cancel flights due to strike or any other reason; other airlines should try to accommodate the overflow not only owing to prior understanding, but also for economic reasons. Even though half of the passengers at the airport were accommodated on JetLite, the sister airline of Jet Airways, there were several others who were not even informed about the cancellation of their respectiveflights, thus resulting unwanted chaos at the airport.
The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) is the industry body formed by the scheduled carriers in India, that addresses a collaborative growth agenda for the industry and focuses on inter-airline cooperation across different issues.
Experts have been advocating for a backup from some time now. As Alok Sharma, former CEO, Air Sahara, insists that a contingency plan should definitely be in place: ?Yes, a concrete back up plan should be there. However, we already have a friendly understanding among the FIA members to share the passenger load in times of crisis.?
Sharma also believes that in such situations, it is difficult to coordinate among the FIA members because there are two different segments in aviation ?? low cost and full-service. So the passengers ultimately are at the receiving end.
The FIA estimates that the passenger load is likely to increase by 50 lakh, that is an approximate rise of 11% in 2010. Given the current scenario and the ever rising demand it becomes imperative for the airlines to come up with a concrete contingency plan.
The Federal Aviation Administration, that comes under the US Department of Transportation also specifies that while every contingency cannot be anticipated and prepared in advance, a strong emergency preparedness programme can assist in limiting the negative impact of these events, including liability and other post-emergency issues. Learning from the Jet experience, a contingency plan in place has become the need of the hour. How the MOCA responds, now remains in question.