[sadhuji]

It is understood that the Centre has asked all airline operators to provide free food to passengers who are stranded because of late running of flights due to fogs. The quantum of food to be served vis-à-vis period of delay should also be spelt out to maintain standardization – for example, a pair of cream biscuits if the delay is upto fifteen minutes, a sandwich and a cup of tea of the delay is between fifteen minutes and upto two hours, dinner if the delay is in excess of two hours with the blankets thrown in to ensure added comfort. The DGCA has also issued directives to flights operating through New Delhi – the flights should be rescheduled to avoid falling into the fog trap.

Earlier, there was the news report of Jet Airways restricting non-vegetarian  meals on its flights to various destinations of Gujarat would have been in order if its applicability was for all passengers – however, it seems, the restriction is meant only for Indians and not for foreigners who fly by Jet Airways.

In this connection, may I narrate an experience of a different nature on my recent flight by Kingfisher from Mumbai to Kolkata? It was an evening flight and, the late arrival of the aircraft at Mumbai led to consequential delay in the take off from Mumbai. Once inside the aircraft, the smart air hostesses went about their business of attending to the passengers in an efficient manner. When it came to the dinner being served, my brother and I opted for vegetarian meals – that took the air hostess by surprise. Normally, most of the passengers take the non-veg dinners and thee was obviously not enough vegetarian packages. The girl smiled sweetly and asked us to wait a while she went backstage to prepare a vegetarian fare out of the non-veg ones. The delay was passable because we were entertained by the tiny TV screens in front of us – the offerings were not very many but adequate to keep our minds occupied. Only, the compositions of our packages were different.

On the return journey, I traveled by Indian Airlines – even though the airline has been rechristened as ‘Indian’, the original name was still emblazoned externally on the body of the aircraft.  Even the in-flight announcer kept mentioning Indian Airlines and not just Indian! The dinner was nothing really exotic – only, the boondi raita was a bit too sour. And, shortly after take off and on attaining the cruising altitude, the air conditioners were lowered a few notches – probably to preserve energy.