I was on the 21:15 flight from Mumbai to Delhi last week. While serving snacks the air hostess called me by my name, “Would you like to have something Ms. Gyanchandani?” I started asking questions on the menu in detail as I just had $5 cash in my wallet, and I wanted to have a filling meal. After taking the first bite of the Chicken Junglee sandwich, it struck me that I was flying Indigo, a low cost airline. For the first time out of my innumerable trips on LCCs had I heard anyone take my name while serving dinner to me.

I went to the air hostess and asked her about it. As per their new customer service rules, they are supposed to have the passenger record sheet with them while serving anything, in some difficult cases, memorize them. They started doing this primarily for their corporate customers, but due to the dropping load factors, they have forwarded this policy for the economy class too.

In these dismal recessionary times, when the passenger demands are seeing negative growth rates, all the airlines are trying to attract customers by whichever way possible; one of them being improving customer service. With 80% occupancy on the flight, it seems few LCCs seem to be able to do that. Indigo, owned by InterGlobe Enterprises a leading travel corporation based in India, has 19 scheduled carriers in service, with 81 on order. It was awarded the title of ‘Best Domestic Low Cost Carrier’ in India for 2008. Apart from customer service, they have also updated themselves on technology and discipline. This was evident by their use of automated screening systems to validate passenger names on the boarding passes, a technology used for the first time by an LCC in India.

Alternatively, Indigo airline is also one of the major market share holders from the passengers carried perspective. It reported a growth in demand in March 2009 with a YoY growth in passengers of 13.9% and a load factor of 70%. It held the fourth position in the market for March ’09, almost equivalent to the traditional carrier Air India. Compared to all the other LCCs, Indigo airlines came out a winner by ranking in the highest numbers of passengers. In a market, where almost 47% of the market is ruled by low cost carriers, this is a huge achievement.

The airline’s distribution system includes a joint venture with eSpherical.com, to provide mobile airline booking and payment for its customers with GPRS-capable mobile phones or mobile PDA’s. It has also come up with deals on all its routes costing $43(inclusive of taxes). All the LCCs have followed suite but have yet to catch up to the prices it offers.

With all the airlines trying to drive passenger demand, customer service improvement is a very important aspect which can turn on the load factors and revenues for any airline. Although the in-flight service costs are twice in Indigo than in any other LCC, the next time I travel, I would still look for an Indigo ticket before considering others.

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