Some lawmakers say they could not find seats on flights during Parliament and wanted reservation.
Highlights
- Lawmakers inconvenienced while travelling on rail, air
- Committee dealing with lawmakers' privileges hold special meet
- Airline executives, aviation secretary attend meet
A panel of parliamentarians met representatives of India's private airlines on Monday to discuss a matter of much urgency. Could they please, they asked, have seats reserved exclusively for them on private carriers like Indigo, Jet Airways and SpiceJet?
The quota, the MPs explained, was needed when parliament is in session as they are much inconvenienced by the unavailability of seats.
The request of the lawmakers, who enjoy preferential treatment on national carrier Air India, was met with a dry "no."
The private airlines, struggling to cut losses, said blocking of seats for MPs was not possible since these are "perishable commodities'' and every empty seat on a flight is money lost.
Some lawmakers also asked to use electronic buggies at Delhi airport's Terminal 3 to avoid the long trek from the gates to the baggage pick-up area, but the GMR Group, which operates the airport, turned down this request too. It said there was not enough space to deploy more buggies, which are meant to ferry elderly passengers only.
The lawmakers were clearly miffed that their demands, which one of them said were rather reasonable, were turned down. "We don't want any sumptuous lunch... facilities means assistance,'' said Congress lawmaker Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, who is a member of the parliament committee on salaries and allowances, which deals with privileges for lawmakers.
Not all demands were rejected outright. The airlines have agreed to consider and get back to the MPs on free upgrades if economy class seats are not available and the use of the airport lounge even when they are flying economy.
Demands for "VIP treatment" from lawmakers are not new. Last year, an Air India flight was delayed and passengers were off-loaded to accommodate a union minister in a stand-out example of "VIP culture".
The complaint of lawmaker Vivek Tankha earlier this year had thus surprised everyone. He had complained to private airline SpiceJet that he found the "VIP treatment" given to him "very embarrassing."
Mr Tankha had said he strongly felt that an MP "is like any other passenger" and should expect the same courtesy offered to other passengers.