Hanging in the air

Bumpy ride

For a majority of people in India, who have been brought up on a staple diet of Indian Railways and inter-state buses, air travel is a luxury which symbolises not only speed but also convenience. But low-fare airlines and increased incomes have made the use of flights a necessity for many. Besides, for most people living away from home, flights are a convenient and quick mode of transport.  

Yet, the experience is not as favourable as one expects it to be. Stopovers, delays, cancellations and the ever-increasing ticket prices don’t make the ‘time on air’ worthwhile for many. And now that the winter season is here along with its share of fog and bad weather, travelling by air is all the more troublesome. Metrolife spoke to people, who have had bad experiences while travelling and finds out more about the negative side of air travel.

Delays and cancellations are something that people face otherwise too. But the entire point of taking a flight is negated when such problems occur. And though a two-hour delay may be tolerable, sometimes the situation becomes really bad.

“Once, when my flight got cancelled, I was only given a choice to board another flight which left the next day. I had three stopovers before it reached the destination. Finally, it took me a day plus seven-and-a-half hours to reach my destination. I could have just boarded a bus and saved the money,” says Aditya Deshpande, a lecturer. Such experiences are not just inconvenient but also frustrating because of the large fare one has to pay for air travel.

Stopovers are another pain especially for people travelling to smaller destinations. “If you are not travelling to a metropolitan city, then you have to first pay a large amount and also wait at the nearest city, many a time, for a few hours for a connecting flight,” says Akiesh, a banking professional. “When you pay so much, the least you can expect is efficient service. But that is not the case as many times, you can only hope that the flight takes off and lands on time,” says Suchismita, a marketing professional.

Fogs, rains and even a trip to the airport, are some big worries which make travelling extremely painful. “I have always hated air travel especially those early flights where you have to reach the airport as early as 4 am,” says Arindam, a marketing professional. “And the airport is so far that getting to the airport takes longer than the time you spend on the flight,” says Anish, an IT professional.

“In a train journey, even if the train is delayed by a few hours, it’s not so bad because the station is not far and all you need to do is to get on the train before it’s gone,” says Suchismita.