Alliance Air, the only government owned airline in the country, is flying through a rough patch. For the second consecutive day, its operations have been disrupted. The airline tweeted about “operational disruptions” affecting its network even as speculation was rife about pilot issues being the real reason.
The cancellations have brought the focus back on small airlines, which are often the only link to many airports in the country.
Lack of clarity
Alliance Air has always been a curious case. The airline continued its bookings on the Air India website for a few weeks after the privatisation of Air India. As of today, its schedule page still reflects the schedule from 2022, and it does not have a flight status checking facility. In fact its flight status page lists websites of airports where one could go and check. In one case even this link is not that of the authorised website of the airport.
Lack of information only gives rise to speculation, even as social media is rife with stories of passengers stranded with little option since Alliance Air has a monopoly on most of its routes, if not all.
Alliance Air and its monopoly
The airline has 21 aircraft in its fleet and is spread very thin with operations to over 50 destinations in the country.
At places such as Agatti, Vidyanagar, Bilaspur, Diu, Sindhudurg, Keshod, Rourkela and Lilabari, among others, Alliance Air is the sole operator. Not to mention many other routes where the airline is a monopoly operator. The disruption has meant that many airports in the country are without flights, with the possibility of people being stranded without any other options.
The start of the holiday season could mean lack of availability in other modes of transport. It is unclear if the airline is making alternative arrangements or processing refunds on the spot.
Pilot issues coming back to the fore
Recently, Air India announced a curtailment of its schedule to North America for a limited period. This was due to a crew shortage. There has been some bickering in the privatised Air India as well with pilot unions writing letters to the new management. With the news of Alliance Air facing pilot issues, things will only get more complex for the industry. After the pandemic-induced shutdown, traffic has returned across the board, with pilots back in demand and new opportunities opening up across the world. In this backdrop, there have been airlines where pilots have been asking for reinstatement of pre-pandemic allowances.
Focus on smaller airlines
When TruJet shut operations, many airports such as Jalgaon and Salem fell off the air map. Disruptions are never welcome and the fall of Jet Airways had led to a massive shortfall of seats across multiple airports. Yet there were very few where the airport lost complete connectivity. When it comes to smaller airlines, the networks are structured such that there are many monopoly airports and routes, leading to a snap in connectivity.
The addition of routes under RCS-UDAN, which gives exclusivity, adds to the problem.
What should passengers do?
Most if not all Alliance Air routes are monopoly routes, which means that if a passenger has to travel by air to those locations, he or she has no choice but to book Alliance Air.
Data for the last two months shows that the airline caters to less than 5,000 passengers per day, with 118 daily departures. While the number is less than 1 percent of daily traffic, disruptions are never a happy feeling for any customer.
At the same time, Alliance Air had the highest complaints per 10,000 passengers in February. That statistic speaks volumes.
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