15 - 21 November 2001
Issue No.560
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 15 - 21 November 2001 Issue No.560 |
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Fly the other one
Are the major airlines trying hard enough to persuade customers to take to the air? Trying out the competition, Jenny Jobbins found at least one older carrier was showing a bit of attitude
With the shock waves from 11 September still reverberating through the travel industry, major European airlines are finding themselves reeling from yet another blow. The success in recent weeks of easyJet and Ryanair confirms that passengers are still willing to travel -- as long as the price is right. There is no audio-visual entertainment, you pay extra for drinks and snacks and the seats are laid out as tightly as piano keys. But the no-frills service offered by such cut-price airlines is more than compensated for by the good humour of the cabin staff ("Anyone caught smoking will immediately be escorted from the aircraft"), and of the passengers who have paid, say, only £22 (plus the usual taxes) for a flight from London to Zurich, a hefty saving of £196 over a Swissair flight.
As Sabena folds and British Airways (BA) announces losses of two million British pounds a day -- BA's passenger numbers fell by a quarter in October, while easyJet's rose by one third -- how are the major airlines setting about wooing customers back in the air, and to their airline in particular?
One answer -- as easyJet and Ryanair demonstrate -- might be to cut the cost of flights, but so far there is little sign of this among the major airlines. While EgyptAir has had the foresight to slash prices for foreign travellers on domestic flights by 40 per cent (fares for Egyptians have been reduced by 15 per cent), most airlines are still taking off on a wing and a prayer. It is becoming more and more confusing to find the best price for the flight you want, and more than ever it pays to shop around. Contradictions abound. While last- minute companies are offering some superb deals, many regular travel agents are still imposing a late booking fee on scheduled flights. If you are booking a scheduled flight and want to leave within the next three days, your first step should be to call the airline directly. It will save a lot of time.
BA, I have noticed, is treating its passengers even better than usual both before and after take-off, but then with fewer passengers to attend to its cabin staff have more time to spoil the ones that are left. Not so one airline I flew last week. My flight to Athens left Cairo an hour late at 4.45am, leaving only a fine margin for me to catch my easyJet flight on to London. We touched down in Athens half an hour before my next flight was due to leave, but then spent an uncomfortable 10 minutes waiting just yards from our parking slot. The cabin crew assured me the ground staff would help me onto my next flight -- but there were no ground staff, just a man in a raincoat who was making sure the steps were in place. "Ask the lady on the bus." he said, shrugging his shoulders. I asked the lady on the bus. She said: "Is it a [national carrier] flight? I said no. "So," she replied. "It isn't our problem." I asked her to repeat this, and she did, adding with a smirk, "If you were flying with [our airline] we could help you." I wondered at what point I had ceased to fly with that airline: when I got off the plane, when I got off the bus, or when I left the terminal?
As the bus pulled up to the terminal my plane was sitting close by, still with its umbilical cord attached to the building. I ran to the transfer desk, where I was told the transfer service was only for flights with the national carrier. As an "any other airline" passenger I had to go through immigration and upstairs to the departure hall. By the time I got there, of course, the easyJet desk was long closed.
Did this national carrier offer me an alternative flight? Indeed not, since they had no reciprocal arrangement with easyJet. Did they offer to cover the £25 fee payable to easyJet for kindly making a seat available for me on their next flight? No. Did they offer me an excursion, or a rest at a hotel? No. Did they, at the very least, offer me a meal ticket? No. I was merely told that my predicament was not "their responsibility." And that their flight from Cairo was late, and no ground staff were available to help me transfer to my flight? Again, not their problem. An apology, perhaps? Certainly not.
Like every other "criminal" who has got it wrong, I was allowed one phone call. I called my family to say I would not, after all, be joining the gathering assembled on my behalf for Sunday lunch. Instead, I spent the next 14 hours in the airport (it was raining so hard there was little point in going anywhere else) and eventually arrived home at midnight, exhausted. The airport, which opened earlier this year, has been designed to cope with a major sporting event in 2004. I hope they have streamlined their transfer arrangements by then. If not, perhaps they might consider putting in a few comfortable seats.
What is the moral of this tale? I cannot tell if the "Fly me, or else!" stance works for the airlines, but I know its effect on us passengers. I'll take my chances with the "else," thanks. At least I can be guaranteed a smile, even if it's only mine as I make a saving on my ticket.
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