MP missing flight led to red carpet diktat

NEW DELHI: A two-hour delay on a Goa-Mumbai flight that made a Congress MP and his wife miss their connecting flight to Indore two years ago has paved the way for the royal treatment that parliamentarians could get from private airlines, in addition to a fawning Air India. The MP had since then been constantly complaining to the government and Lok Sabha privileges committee, which saw the panel coming down heavily on aviation ministry officials. Rattled by MPs' criticism, aviation officials conceived the plan to make it mandatory for private airlines also to "extend courtesy" to MPs like AI.

The genesis of this latest aam aadmi heartburn lies in Congress Lok Sabha member from Ujjain, Prem Chand Guddu, and his wife taking a private airline flight from Goa to Mumbai about two years ago. "The flight was delayed by two hours and we kept waiting at the Goa airport as there was no information from the airline. As a result of this delay, we missed the connecting Mumbai-Indore flight," 54-year-old Guddu told TOI.

The MP claimed that the private carrier did not make any arrangement for their night stay in Mumbai. "We had to spend the night in Mumbai at our expense while it was the mistake of the airline and their duty to put us up somewhere. We took the flight to Indore the next day," the MP said.

Guddu said since then he had been constantly raising the issue about the airline's bad treatment in the government, in Parliament and even complained to the Prime Minister. The matter was referred to the privileges committee, which reportedly pulled up the aviation ministry over private airlines' disregard for MPs.

So is Guddu, who has been MLA in Madhya Pradesh twice, now satisfied with the proposed move to bring private airlines on a par with AI in terms of laying the red carpet for MPs? "That is the rule. AI gives us an attendant (escort at airport). Private airlines should also do so. Also, the issue at stake is bigger. If private airlines treat MPs like this, what will be happening with aam aadmi. I have been taking this issue up with the government so that they ensure private airlines treat flyers with respect," he said.

Sources in the aviation ministry and airlines say the biggest problem VVIPs have with most private airlines is that unlike AI, they don't hold up their flights if they are late in reaching the airport. After IndiGo's success riding, among other things, on on-time performance (OTP), other airlines are also scurrying to improve their punctuality record. But AI continues to remain at the bottom of the OTP list, remains fawning to VVIPs and hence is the firm favourite for the khas aadmi who are now asking why the private players can't be like the Maharaja! The first step to doing that may be taken soon.