What Is The Effect On The Consumer Perception Of Kingfisher And Air Deccan Brands After Their Merger

Posted In: Air Deccan

Desirae Mariacher says...

Most Kingfisher customers have always had a high opinion of this airline. So do travel agents. In India, I know many travel agencies that recommend Kingfisher to their customers because of the quality of the food, the timeliness of the airline, the professionalism of the air hostesses, the facilities on board their aircrafts and the professionalism of both their ground staff and ticketing agents.



Until several months ago, Air Deccan was considered to be the dregs of the airline industry - worldwide (believe me, I've flown in airlines all over the world. Air Deccan could easily have ranked amongst the top 10 worst airlines in the world). People who flew Air Deccan did so either because no other airline flew their route or because they couldn't afford a better, more professional airline. Everything about Air Deccan sucked - facilities, people, food, timeliness, baggage handling... you name it. In short - Air Deccan treated theirpotential and existing customers worse than cattle.



Then something strange began happening a few months ago. Air Deccan flights began to leave on time or at least within 30-60 minutes of their scheduled departures. Whether it was because of an imminent takeover or just because they decided that enough was enough, they actually began to improve.



Now, with the takeover by Kingfisher, commuters expect other facets of Air Deccan to improve too. Commuters expect Mallaya to "kick-*** and take names"- fire and hire. For example, commuters expect Air Deccan's quality of service (both in-flight and ground personnel) to improve considerably either by training their existing personnel to treat their customers like human beings instead of cattle or fire them and hire better personnel.



It's a low-cost airline, agreed. So food for purchase can stay. But commuters expect everything else to improve - dramatically.

Posted on May 26, 2011