The House panel on civil aviation wants to have its cake and eat it too. The financial health of airlines precludes that

Are airline passengers an angry lot?  Yes. They are frustrated with high excess baggage charges, overpriced food and occasional inordinate delays of the airlines. But with airline tickets being cheaper than ever before before, more and more Indians are flying.  While some of the charges are understandable, they remain the only way for most airlines to make money. Indeed, evidence from airlines in the international market  has proven that a lot of airline profits are driven by what are now known as ancillary revenues such as these. After a Parliamentary Committee report made it clear that many of these practices are unfair, what is the way forward? Well, the airlines should charge more for all tickets then. But given that a huge majority of travellers do manage to travel within the weight limits, fare increases, because some people want higher baggage allowances, might be unfair to the former. Why should a person, taking a short business trip between Delhi and Mumbai, subsidise the luggage allowance of another passenger? Especially with most Indian airlines suffering financially, these statements are confounding.

That said, it is imperative, as the Committee has noted, that airlines train their ground and cabin staff better to deal with trouble. While many Indian passengers do scream and shout, they should understand that many of the airline staff are doing a thankless job on days when there are weather-related delays and what not. Better staff training can help mitigate those problems. At the same time, the Government and the Civil Aviation Ministry should move an airline passengers’ ‘Bill of Rights’ that has proper time-bound compensation written out in case of delays and cancellations. In Europe, all airlines are forced to pay out in case there are heavy delays instead of just ‘refunding’ tickets. Sure, there should be exemptions made for events beyond the airlines’ control, such as the drone problems at London’s Gatwick, but codifying compensation issues is a better move than demanding more baggage allowance.