JOIN USThe war between airlines operating in India is no more limited to prices as the bosses of two carriers have minced no words in attacking each other on Twitter.
The latest war of words started last week following AirAsia’s chief Tony Fernandes’ remarks about competitors, including IndiGo, blocking his company from entering the aviation lobby group Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA). Fernandes had claimed that the FIA even tried to persuade the Civil Aviation Ministry not to invite AirAsia India and Vistara for a consultative meeting.
Taking on Fernandes without naming him or his airline, SpiceJet Chief Operating Officer (COO) tweeted, “Interesting to see the new entrant foreign airline change strategy every month and claim full planes when loads in the low 70s. But then again, back in July, they claimed they were soldout for next two months, when a simple web check could prove that was false,” he said.
“You can’t learn the jack about a market by sitting inside your hotel room. You got to go out. Very true, if you are a foreigner,” Kapoor had said.
Kapoor’s comments also invited responses, some of them supporting him while some others raising questions about the remarks. One of the responses objected to Kapoor raising the foreign nationality of Fernandes, the Malaysian-British entrepreneur.
“Please don’t bring race into this. It is to do with who effectively controls the airline. Foreign control or not? Cheers,” Alexander Sterling, who tweets under @AviatorAlexS, said.
Responding to this, Kapoor said, “No country in the world allows foreign control of domestic airlines. It is an issue of the law, and NOTHING to do with race.”