Shortage of talent in India: IndiGo's defence for cases of misconduct by staff

The Parliamentary Standing Committee said that airlines need to become passenger friendly and its staff should learn to say "please" and "Thank you".

NEW DELHI: While the Parliamentary Standing Committee came down hard on airlines for reports of misconduct with passengers, IndiGo has said that it is hard to train people who come from villages.

"We have a challenge of getting talented people in consumer facing industry. For a country of 130 crore people, one shortage we have is talent. We have to just hold up the mirror to ourselves. We have lot of young people with so many degrees but the talent we require is not there. Indigo is hiring people from Tier-II and Tier III cities and creating jobs there. Those who studied in Government schools or mohalla /village areas cannot be trained to speak fluent English within a span of four to five weeks," president of IndiGo airlines Aditya Ghosh said adding that IndiGo is investing more on training.

The standing committee has condemned the recent incident when a passenger was manhandled by Indigo staff, adding that airlines need to become passenger friendly and its staff should learn to say "please" and "Thank you".

The Committee noted that recently there were many incidents of manhandling, discourteous and rude behavior by airlines staff, both ground staff and cabin crew. Some of them were reported in the media and a large number of them went unreported.

The 26-page report "Issues related to improving consumers` satisfaction of airlines" was done after consulting with Civil Aviation officials and various industry stakeholders.

The Committee said that merely taking strictest action against the employees does not absolve the airline of its guilt of the incident. 

"The Committee observes that the problems affecting the airlines are not personal; it is institutional. An institution like Indigo has to develop a consumer friendly approach in dealing with their passengers. The Committee believes that being a leader in market share, Indigo needs to look inward and find out the reasons for the discourteous attitude and rude and indifferent behavior of their employees, whether it is their cabin crew or the ground staff. The Committee emphasizes that the arrogant behavior of employees should stop," the report said.

The Committee had detailed interaction with the CEOs of various airlines on various trainings imparted to different categories of officials and employees. 

The Members of the Committee unanimously emphasized upon the need for providing proper training to the airlines staff especially on soft skills and passenger handling