Air travel has become an essential part of commuting in Malaysia, evidenced by the number of airlines offering budget, and full-service options.
Like any other business enterprise, airlines must be profitable to remain viable.
However, air travel is indispensable in today’s social, economic, and political life.
As it is a necessity for the people and the nation, its business model should not solely be profit-oriented. It also must serve the community.
Thus, the ethics of doing business should be tempered with the moral sense of social responsibility.
Local airlines have a captive market, much more so between East and West Malaysia, which depends on air travel exclusively as the mode of connectivity. At least in Peninsular Malaysia, there are rail and road options.
But the cost of air travel can be prohibitive and the services rendered leave much to be desired. The dynamic fare pricing algorithm could be punitive to normal passengers. This is evident during festivities, school holidays, and peak travel periods when the airlines make a killing with their exorbitant fares.
Passengers are always on the receiving end when it comes to prices or inadvertent discrepancies in ticketing.
It will cost you a pretty penny if you bought a ticket at the counter on the day of travel, for you will be charged the maximum rate.
Discrepancies in the spelling of the passenger’s name, even a single letter, would require the issuance of a new ticket that would cost almost as much as the original ticket.
If you missed or cancelled your flight, your ticket is gone. And God forbid if you unintentionally have excess baggage. On domestic flights, a 10kg excess would cost as much as a one-way ticket.
On the other hand, the airlines would absolve themselves of any responsibility for any irregularities or delays in departure times, or flight cancellations, usually attributing them to operational, or technical problems.
And passengers are never compensated.
It is the norm for domestic airlines to keep passengers in the dark in cases of retiming or flight delays, sometimes by several hours.
There is a constant tussle between passengers’ priority and comfort, and airlines’ interests.
Passengers sitting in coach are usually herded like cattle in a pen.
There is simply not enough legroom, and by the time you arrive, you body would be stiff, sore, and numb from sitting in a confined space for hours on end.
The airlines’ only concern is shoehorning the maximum number of seats in the cramped metal tube to generate maximum revenue at the expense of passengers’ wellbeing and comfort.
Certain airlines are not handicapped friendly, charging even for the use of wheelchairs.
We may have the latest models of planes but only a Third World management acuity. The airlines rely more on reactive, rather than proactive management, because it is afflicted with the civil service culture and mentality.
Before, air travel was a novelty, but now it is a necessity.
There is a need to upgrade the ground and inflight facilities to benefit passengers, and to not take them for granted.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13.
