As part of its efforts to develop a strategy for preventing the recurring episodes of flight delays and cancellations to the Gulf sector, the national carrier Air India on Monday launched an interaction programme with different sections of society at all the three airports in the State.
“The mission is to meet the people, discuss the issues, get the feedback and report it back to the CMD so as to improve the service,'' according to Appukuttan A.R., chief of engineering, Air India Express (AIE), who commenced a two-day visit to Kochi here on Monday.
The airline has also sent E.P. D'zousa, the HRD manager of AIE, to the Kozhikode airport and its quality manager A. Sarma to Thiruvanathapuram with the same purpose, he said.
Report soon
During the visit, the officials are scheduled to discuss the issues with the different groups such as elected representatives, travel agents and passengers' associations.
A report will be made on the basis of these performance feedbacks and an action plan will be rolled out accordingly. Mr. Appukuttan on Monday attended interactive sessions with the various regional media heads and Parliament members K.P Dhanapalan and P.C. Chacko, who earlier had initiated a meeting in Kochi with the Air India supremo Arvind Jadhav, last month.
Key focus
According to him, the key area of focus during the sessions was on reducing the incidence of diversions by rescheduling its services to the Kozhikode airport in the morning while sticking to the original schedule in the other two destinations.
The other major suggestions that arose during the sessions include a proposal to park a standby aircraft in Cochin airport along with its crew team, improve the interdepartmental relations and to maintain a cordial relation with the related agencies. In an interactive session with the media in the evening, Mr. Appukuttan said the works on its heavy maintenance hangar at the Thiruvanathapuram airport would be completed by the end of this year. The hangar will encompass facilities up to the ‘D' check of an aircraft and a state-of-the-art painting shop, he said.
